Karnataka High Court: M.I. Arun, J. allowed the writ petition and declared the show cause notice or any subsequent proceeding as null and void.
According to the brief facts of the case, the petitioners were granted the impugned land in 1975 for non-agricultural purposes and had since been in peaceful possession.
The petitioners contended that the respondents had been issuing show-cause notices and had been pursuing proceedings against them since 2016 alleging that the said land was allotted to them, not in accordance with law. The petitioners had been defending themselves since the very inception of the dispute in 2016, and finally filing the present writ petition against the latest notice issued in August 2020. Further, the petitioners also sought the order passed by the respondent Commissioner cancelling their land grant to be quashed as it had been passed while the present appeal was still being adjudicated upon.
The Court held that since the land was granted to the petitioner in the year 1975 and the show cause notice has been issued in 2020, thus a lapse or delay of 45 years is not reasonable or just. The Court further pointed out that Article 112 of the Limitation Act prescribes 30 years limitation period for suits by or on behalf of the central or state government.
Furthermore, fraud may vitiate everything, but the respondents failed in indicating fraudulent acts by the petitioners in the notice. Thus the incessant delay in issuing the notice was held to be bad in law.[G. Chitra Poornima v. State of Karnataka, 2020 SCC OnLine Kar 1393, decided on 10-09-2020]
