Ahmedabad, June 3: The petitioners, represented by Advocate Virat Popat, had filed a petition at the Gujarat High Court, challenging the constitutionality of the Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act along with challenging the registration of the FIR against them.The petitioners, represented by Advocate Virat Popat, had filed a petition at the Gujarat High Court, challenging the constitutionality of the Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act along with challenging the registration of the FIR against them.
The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to Gujarat in a plea challenging the Gujarat High Court’s verdict upholding the Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act in May as constitutionally valid. A division bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Augustine George Masih also stayed further proceedings in the FIR concerning the appellants in the interim, and kept the notices returnable for August.
The appellants — Kishan Boriya, Govind Boriya and Bharat Boriya — are facing a First Information Report (FIR) in Rajkot concerning a land purchase in the district’s Kotharia village. The petitioners have said they are bonafide purchasers and even though they made a declaration in a civil suit in 2019, pending before a civil judge in Rajkot, that they are ready and willing to forego their rights in the property, an FIR was filed against them in November 2021.
The petitioners, represented by Advocate Virat Popat, had filed a petition at the Gujarat High Court, challenging the constitutionality of the Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act along with challenging the registration of the FIR against them.
After the Gujarat High Court upheld the constitutional validity of the Act in a judgement dated May 9, dismissing a bunch of petitions numbering over a hundred, the doors opened for the state machinery to pursue criminal and civil proceedings under the Act.
The Supreme’s direction, however, implies a stay on only the particular FIR concerning the appellants and not all the FIRs lodged under the Act.
Following the pronouncement of the verdict of the Gujarat HC, advocates for some of the petitioners had requested that the interim relief granted by way of a stay on further proceedings on the FIRs lodged under the Act be extended until July 30 since the Supreme Court shall reopen on July 8.
The request was, however, rejected by the High Court “for the simple reason that at the beginning of the argument, it was agreed that the court will examine only on the validity of the legislation and the merits of the individual cases will not be looked into.”
