HC orders status quo on Sanguem land

PANAJI 
The Goa government has illegally inserted itself as the owner of more than 360 hectares of land spread across three villages -- Uguem, Patiem and Costi -- in Sanguem taluka and deleted the name of a duly constituted society -- the Sociedade Patriótica dos Baldios das Novas Conquistas who were the rightful owners of the land, the members of the society have alleged.

This was done allegedly as a move to shift the IIT-Goa Campus to Sanguem on the land belonging to the Society by claiming it to be government land.

The Bombay High Court at Goa has now directed that notices be issued to the Goa government and its revenue officers and ordered that a status quo be maintained in the matter.

“We expect that the state of affairs as on date would not be disturbed till the next date,” the High Court bench of Justices Sunil P Deshmukh and M S Soak said while hearing the matter on August 10. The matter has now been posted for August 24.

In a petition before the High Court, the Society has claimed that ‘behind its back’ as recently as this year, the Goa government has changed the ‘record of rights’ maintained by the Directorate of Settlement and Land Records to show the Government as the owners of the land claiming that such a decision was taken by the government back in 1966.

The members of the Society have claimed that besides changing the land records without giving them any kind of notice, which betrayed the principles of natural justice, the Goa government has also gone against its own survey records which reflected the Society as the rightful owners of the land in the 1970s despite allegedly taking back in land in 1966 as well as through various land acquisition proceedings where they were recognised as the rightful owners.

The Sociedade which is a society duly constituted under the laws in force (erstwhile) Portuguese Regime, then regulated and approved by the Governor General of Goa came to own substantial properties and parcels of land, situated within the taluka of Sanguem, acquired by it as far back as the subsistence of the (erstwhile) Portuguese regime in Goa. Some of these lands were purchased by the petitioner and some granted to it by the erstwhile Portuguese Government and permanent possession was given.

However in April this year, the Director of Settlement and Land Records, addressed a letter to the South Goa Collector stating that the Revenue Department had reverted lands assigned to the Society by an Order dated 28/07/1966.

Apparently, in pursuance of the directions in the Memorandum dated 04/06/2021, the deputy collector and the mamlatdar of Sanguem proceeded to correct the 

records of rights in Form No., I & XIV in respect of the various properties.

“Prior to this exercise of purported correction of the records of rights no notice was issued to the Society, and no opportunity to file its reply/say and/or to be heard in the matter was afforded,” the Society represented by Adv George Agnelo D’Souza said in its petition.

The order of 1966 referred by the Government is a notification dated 27/07/1966 of the Revenue Department, by which it was declared that of various lands granted to the petitioner, while some continue to be partly under cultivation, other, said to not be under cultivation were required to be reverted to the Government in accordance with the Section 34 of the ‘Estatute of the Sociedade’, i.e. the Constitution.

Even after the issue of the notification, no action was taken from 1966, till the issue of Letter dated 28/05/2021 and Memorandum dated 04/06/2021, and such the petitioner had no occasion to raise any challenge.

“The notification was never implemented and possession of the said properties continued with the petitioner throughout and was recognized by the Goa government in land acquisition proceeding and otherwise. The survey records which were promulgated in or about 1973-74, continued in the petitioner’s name without any objection from the authorities, nor did the authorities act under Section 14 of the Land Revenue Code or take out any other legal proceedings to assert their title, if any, to the said properties,” the Society said in its petition.

“Possession of the said properties continues with the petitioner as of date, and this is also evident from the letter of the Collector dated 28/5/2021 wherein he has directed to take over possession. Possession was never taken by the Goa government, nor any notice issued by them of any proposed taking of possession,” the Society said.

“The petitioner’s title that has crystallized whether by prescription or adverse possession, could not have been interfered with by the government without due process of law, or in the absence of any legal proceedings being adopted by the Goa government to enforce their rights, if any. However, it appears the Goa government has suddenly risen, claiming to act in terms of the 1966 notification, to remove the name of the Society from all records of rights pertaining to the properties, and to insert the name of the Goa government in its place, entirely with the ulterior and oblique motive, object and goal, of grabbing the Society’s properties without due process of law and in violation of the principles of natural justice.

“The entire exercise of purported correction of the records of rights has been done behind our backs, completely without following the due process of law and in stark violation of the principles of natural justice. We came to know of the aforesaid orders/proceedings when our supervisor applied for and obtained copies of the survey record of rights of some of the said properties in June this year and was shocked to note that the Society’s name was deleted and the name of the Government of Goa was inserted in its place,” he added.

“The high-handed, arbitrary, illegal, unjust, unfair and capricious orders issued by the authorities for insertion of the name of the Government of Goa and consequent deletion of the Society’s name from the records of rights purportedly pursuant to a notification of 1966, all being done without authority of law, without any notice whatsoever to the petitioner, and in total breach of the principles of natural justice,” the petitioners alleged.

“The action of the Respondents is therefore illegal, arbitrary, without authority of law, and in violation of the Petitioner’s rights under Articles 300A & 14 our Constitution,” the Society has alleged.