Madhya Pradesh High Court: G.S. Ahluwalia, J. while dismissing the petition, observed that the petitioners have an efficacious remedy of filing a Civil Suit against illegal possession of the land.
In the instant case, reliefs in the nature of writ of certiorari was sought to be issued to declare the construction over the land in dispute by the respondent private party be illegal unauthorized and encroachment, writ of prohibition was sought to be issued to prevent the respondent private party to raise further construction over the disputed property and writ of mandamus was sought to be issued to dismantle the unauthorized construction and to remove the restriction/hindrance caused in the way of the petitioners in approaching the property.
Counsel for the petitioners, Balwant Singh Kushwah submitted that Respondent 6, i.e., Additional Director General of Police, Police Headquarters, had encroached upon the land belonging to the petitioners and no action from the authorities was taken. It was further submitted that the right to hold the property is a fundamental right and, therefore, this petition is maintainable.
After analyzing the submissions of the petitioner, the Court observed that the right to hold a property is not a fundamental right. Moreover, this petition is against an individual in his personal capacity not in the capacity of Additional Director General of Police.
It was also submitted by the petitioner that the husband of the petitioner 2 had filed a civil suit for declaration of title and permanent injunctions for some other plots which the respondent 6 had encroached upon, in which the respondent no.6 was restrained from interfering with the possession, but in the circumstance where the respondent 6 had dispossessed husband of the petitioner 2, this cannot be considered as an efficacious remedy. Furthermore, a writ petition is not maintainable against a private individual. [Laxmi Devi v. State of MP, 2019 SCC OnLine MP 3629, decided on 25-11-2019]
