the goan I network
PANAJI
Ruling that there is prima facie merit in the contentions raised by the Goa Foundation concerning the order of the specially appointed Deputy Collector who ruled that the Tiracol land bought by Leading Hotels to set up a golf course was free of tenancy, the Bombay High Court at Goa directed that the order passed by the collector be stayed
until the matter is heard by the court.
The Goa Foundation had filed a petition challenging the order passed by the Deputy Collector Agnelo Fernandes stating that the land was free of tenancy.
“Now that we have heard the matter at some length and are of the view that prima facie there is merit in the contentions of the petitioners (Goa Foundation), and which contentions need to be properly answered by respondent No.3 (Leading Hotels Limited), and also since we feel that any further steps either by the State Government or by respondent No.3 in pursuance of the order impugned in the present petitions, would not satisfy the requirements of propriety, it is in the interest of justice that the State Government as well as Leading Hotels should be restrained from taking further steps in pursuance of the impugned order of the Deputy Collector till the matter is heard,” the High Court said.
The High Court initially had not passed any interim orders with a view to hear the matter directly at the final hearing stage.
However, in the midst of the arguments, and just as the court was gearing up to wind up arguments and pass orders, the Goa Foundation sought to amend its petition leaving the court “in a rather peculiar situation.”
However, Leading Hotels continues to have permission to build the two demo villas which was granted by the High Court in July 2015, a permission that they have sought not to exploit.
Leading Hotels is also at liberty to apply for vacating the stay.
The Goa Foundation has challenged the report of the Inquiry Officer Agnelo Fernandes, the then deputy collector of Dharbandora, who, after an extensive inquiry, ruled that part of the lands of Tiracol village were not tenanted in the Bombay High Court at Goa.
Fernandes was tasked with re-examining whether the lands in which Leading Hotels had obtained tenancy-free certificates were indeed tenanted.
In its judgement in March this year, the HC had directed the Deputy Collector of Dharbandora, Agnelo Fernandes, to hear the Leading Hotels and the various parties and submit a report on the tenancy status of the lands as of 2.11.1990, which is the date of the coming into force of the Goa Land Use Act, 1991.
The Goa Foundation claims that the Deputy Collector rejected the voluminous record of tenancy placed before him on grounds that he was bound by the decisions of several civil courts and mamlatdars which had held that the tenants’ names on the Forms I & XIV were in the nature of “erroneous entries” and therefore could be deleted from the records.
On the issue of whether the lands were tenanted, the Deputy Collector’s report said that the tenants could not substantiate their claims through any means including oral submissions.
“Respondents have not produced any document or evidence to establish their tenancy apart from Form I & XIV entry and pre-promulgation records, and therefore there is reason to believe that the respondents admitted the claim of the applicant
knowing fully well that they don’t have any documents to establish tenancy,” Fernandes ruled.
An earlier inquiry report by Sandip Jacques, an officer appointed by the State Government to inquire into the issue found that there was “more than what meets the eye.”
“There are a number of cases wherein there are orders of declaration of tenancy or purchase orders and certificates issued under the Agricultural Tenancy Act which have either subsequently been set aside or are pending adjudication before the appropriate appellate courts,” Jacques said in his report.
“It is incomprehensible to believe that it is a mere coincidence… One can understand one or two cases but not the whole village and that too not almost at the same time. There is definitely something more than what meets the eye,” Jacques said.
