HC indicts West Champaran DM for land scam

PATNA: The Patna High Court on Thursday indicted West Champaran DM Ravi Parmar for violating the court order not to dispossess the writ petitioner, Jai Mangal Singh, of his land, declared surplus, till the disposal of his revision petition in accordance with law.
A single bench, presided by Justice Aftab Alam, made strong observation against the West Champaran DM, who was present before the court, for dispossessing the petitioner of his “surplus land� and distributing parchas of it in violation of the HC’s stay.The land was handed over to the parcha-holders with the standing crop of the petitioner.
The petitioner had to file a second writ petition before the high court this year when the DM did not comply with the court order passed on the first writ petition for not dispossessing the petitioner of the alleged “surplus land�.
During the hearing of the second writ petition, the high court directed the DM to file a show cause and counter-affidavit as to why had he violated the court order and handed over the petitioner’s land in dispute to the parcha-holders.
The DM gave the impression that he did not feel the observation made in the first writ petition to be a clear directive of the court. At this, Justice Aftab Alam made it clear that the observation made by the high court on the first writ petition was binding upon the DM.
In his show cause the DM remained evasive and did not mention that he had issued parchas of the land and handed it over to parcha-holders. However, he mentioned the same in his counter-affidavit.
Expressing his unhappiness over the matter, Justice Aftab Alam said that this was not an isolated case as the court had come across several other cases in Bettiah in which the DM had taken steps or had passed orders which were illegal, capricious and arbitrary.
“In fact, this court proposed to consolidate all ceiling cases coming from West Champaran and to draw the attention of superior functionaries in the state government,� the court added.
“The collector might think that by his action he was promoting the cause of land ceiling in the district, but his actions were highly counter-productive, and the kind of orders he was passing are causing grave harm and injury to the cause of land ceiling in the district,� Justice Alam observed.