PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa has dismissed a bunch of pleas filed by persons who have encroached upon land owned by the Comunidade of Tivim challenging judgments and decrees dated December 5, 2019 made by the District Court (Trial Court) ordering the removal of encroachments on the Comunidade property.
The High Court ruled that the encroachers were not eligible for relief for their “brazen and high-handed usurpation of the Comunidade property.”
“Such encroachers cannot insist upon regularisation as a matter of an absolute right. There are several decisions which hold that the community has an interest in protecting the Comunidade properties. Even the Comunidades cannot fritter away their own properties without following provisions of the Code of Comunidades and without obtaining the approval of the Government. Even the Government cannot allot Comunidade properties by ignoring provisions of the Code of Comunidades,” the High Court bench of Justice M S Sonak ruled.
The appellants argued before the court that the constructions put up by the appellants were regularisable and deserved to be regularised under Article 372-A of the Code of Comunidades. The Comunidade and the government respondents, however, opposed relief to the encroachers.
The Comunidade argued that the structures were completely illegal, put up without authority on the Comunidade property with a vague statement that the structures were put up with the consent of the Comunidade. They pointed out how the NOCs were fabricated documents allegedly issued in the year 2005 or after that by a clerk without any authority. They pointed out how the document was most suspicious on its face apart from the fact that such document was not backed by any resolution of the Comunidade, any outward number or any record whatsoever of its issue.
