Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has delivered a landmark order in the 16-year-old Sancoale Comunidade case ordering demolition of the illegal structures on the Comunidade lands.
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The HC has gone one step ahead and directed the Revenue Secretary to ‘apply mind’ whether the continuance of Pratap Mardolkar as the President of the Comunidade of Sancoale is in the interest of the Comunidade.
The petition before the HC had challenged the order dated September 2019 passed by the Administrator of Comunidade, South Zone, Margao rejecting petitioners’ applications for review of the order dated November 2017, by which the Administrator had declined to regularise the brazen encroachments carried out by the petitioners upon the Comunidade’s property surveyed under No.115/1, Sancoale.
After encroaching upon Comunidade’s property, the petitioners constructed unauthorised structures therein for commercial use. More than 40 commercial structures had mushroomed in the property over a period of time in connivance of the Comunidade.
By notice dated October 27, 2005 the Administrator of Comunidades initiated action for demolition of the suit structures on the Comunidade property. The Administrator alleged that the petitioners had encroached upon the Comunidade properties.
Accordingly, show cause notices were issued to the petitioners. The petitioners who are the encroaching parties, anticipating demolition, had approached the High Court challenging the order of the HC.
The HC has denied any relief to the petitioners and has directed demolishing of the structures in the encroached portion and to restore the encroached portion to the Comunidade within four weeks from Thursday, April 13.
The four petitioners have been ordered to file compliance reports within four weeks and deposit costs of 40,000 each within four weeks from today in this Court with due intimation to the Additional Government Advocate.
The HC has also asked whether the matters need to be referred to the SIT or the Commission of Inquiry which is presently investigating large-scale land-grabbing instances in the State of Goa.
The HC has also asked the Revenue Secretary to think of recovering from the petitioners’ suitable amounts for having encroached upon the Comunidade property and using the same for commercial purposes from the date of such encroachment, till the petitioners restore the property to the Comunidade of Sancoale.
In addition to the above directions, HC ordered the Revenue Secretary to monitor the progress of matters against encroachers on the comunidade lands and ensure that they are taken to their logical conclusion at the earliest. A report of the action taken must be filed by the Revenue Secretary in this Court latest by July 31, 2023.
One of the respondents in the case defending the Sancoale Comunidade land Narayan Naik said, “This is a landmark order, a watertight order which will set a precedent in the future and will prevent encroachment of Comunidade lands in the future. The Comunidades across Goa and the encroachers should now be alert and revert the land,” he said.
