Intervenor admitted to Dona Paula govt land case

TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: The Administrative Tribunal has admitted the appeal of S S Dalvi who had sought to be an intervenor in an application for survey of prime government land in Dona Paula allegedly occupied by a private party.
The state has filed for resurvey of the property acquired by the government more than four decades ago in view of the dispute whether the property where the Mathias Ocean Park Residency now stands, is government-acquired land. The case was filed to identify and demarcate the land that was acquired by the government.
This order has set aside the order of the deputy collector which had dismissed Dalvi’s application to be an intervenor.  The case will now come up for hearing before the deputy collector on December 12.
Dalvi had approached the deputy collector in the case filed by the state of Goa for re-survey of property surveyed under No. 249/1 of Taleigao VP Clothildes Fernandes, Joe Mathias and Meridian Estates Pvt Ltd were made respondents in the case.
The SDO had sought clarifications in the case as to the total area of Cadastral Survey No 785, whether that survey number corresponds to the present survey numbers 249/1, 249/1-A, 249/1-B, 249/2, 254, 255/1, 255/2 and 260 further whether any records are available to show that the possession of the property (785) and structure were taken by the government and handed over to the police department for the purpose of GRP quarters, for a copy of the plan under section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act and whether any structures were shown in the old cadastral survey plan.
Joe Mathias has already claimed that the property is not government land, but legally acquired by him from the original owners.
Nelson Cabral, former CCP corporator and businessman from Dona Paula who had initially filed a police complaint back in 2008 and a vigilance complaint against Joe Mathias and others for grabbing government land has already deposed as a witness telling the deputy collector some of the questions raised.
“As per directions given by the High Court, I have given my evidence before the court of the deputy collector and answered the above mentioned points raised by the deputy collector and SDA and further evidence is yet to be recorded,” Nelson Cabral said.
“It was necessary for the trial court to join him as a party before proceeding with the work of resurvey,” the administrative tribunal has said in an order passed last month.
“It is seen from the records that the trial court on receipt of the application… without giving notice to any of the parties, dismissed the same without giving any reason in the impugned order. To my mind this conduct of the trial court is perverse,” the Additional President of the Administrative Tribunal said.
“He has contended that he is the occupant of the (adjacent) property and to my mind, being a matter of re-survey, all the persons who are the owners of the adjoining property becomes the interested parties as they have a common dividing line. No reason has been given by the trial court in the impugned order to hold the petitioner as not an interested party in the proceedings,” he said in the order.