RANCHI, India, May 1 -- Jharkhand High Court issued the following order on March 30:

1. Heard learned counsel for the parties.

2. The petitioner, by instituting this public interest litigation has complained about encroachments on government property described as plot numbers 206, 207, 208 and 209 corresponding to Khata No.172 at Porahat, Chakradharpur, District-West Singhbhum.

3. The allegation in the public interest litigation was that no action is being taken by the respondents to remove these encroachments.

4. A Counter affidavit has been filed by Ms. Shruti Rajlakshmi, Sub-Divisional Officer-cum-Magistrate at Chakradharpur. In paragraph 14 of the affidavit, the affiant has stated that no less than three notices were issued to the encroachers to clear the encroachment. However, since the encroachers failed to clear the encroachment, an order was made on 27.05.2025 by the circle officer under Section 6 of the Bihar (now Jharkhand) Public Land Encroachment Act of 1956. Pursuant to such order, and after deploying police force, the encroachments were removed on 30.05.2025. Even photographs have been annexed along with the counter affidavit.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner however states that some encroachments still remain.

6. We find that no rejoinder has been filed to the counter affidavit referred to above.

7. In any event, if some encroachments do remain, then, it will be open to the petitioner, to file complaints to the Deputy Commissioner of West Singhbhum and the Deputy Commissioner will look into such complaints and if indeed, there are some encroachments that remain to be cleared, the same will be cleared in accordance with law as expeditiously as possible.

8. Further, we direct the Deputy Commissioner to ensure that the encroachments do not re-surface in this area. It is one thing to remove the encroachments once the complaints are received and quite another to ensure that such encroachments do not repeatedly re-surface upon government lands. Therefore, necessary steps must be taken by the Deputy Commissioner to ensure that this government land is free from encroachments.

9. With the above directions, we dispose of this public interest litigation without any order for costs.

Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.