Disturbed Areas Act: HC stays govt notice to cancel 2018 land sale deed in Vadodara

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court has stayed a notice issued by the Vadodara deputy collector seeking to cancel a 2018 land sale and restore possession to the original owner, after the same authority granted permission for a second sale of the property in Aug 2025.Justice Aniruddha Mayee stayed the notice issued on Nov 4, 2025, while hearing a petition filed by the original seller and buyer, directing the authority to respond by Feb 17. The case dates back to June 2018, when Sanjay Patel sold a land parcel in Fatehgunj area to Mohammed Haseem Shaikh. The sale deed was registered, and Shaikh's name was mutated in property records in 2019. After Shaikh's death, his heirs' names were entered in revenue records. The transaction came under scrutiny in March 2020 when a neighbour objected to the sale, saying a Hindu man had sold the property to a Muslim man without prior permission required under the Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Properties and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Eviction from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act. This led the deputy collector to issue a notice to Patel and the Shaikh family, asking why the 2018 sale deed should not be cancelled. In response, both parties filed an application seeking post-facto permission under the Act, which remained pending since 2020. In Aug 2025, the Shaikh family sold the same land to Soyel Ansari after obtaining the requisite prior permission under the Disturbed Areas Act from the same authority. Despite granting permission for the second sale, the deputy collector issued a fresh notice on Nov 4, 2025, again asking why the 2018 sale deed should not be cancelled and why the possession of the land parcel should not be restored to Patel since that sale had violated the Act. This brought Patel and the Shaikh family to the HC, where they submitted that there was no dispute between them regarding the sale. They contended that notice was not maintainable because the authority had failed to decide on their pending post-facto permission application filed in 2020. Moreover, records of their permission application were missing from govt files. The high court then issued the notice and sought a reply by Feb 17, granting an ad-interim stay on the deputy collector's notice, "In the meantime, there shall be ad-interim stay of the impugned notice dated 04.11.2025 in case Avit/Dastavej Rad/Appeal No. 3 of 2025 issued by the respondent — Deputy Collector, Vadodara City until the next date of hearing."