65Yr-Old Wrongly Jailed In Land Grabbing Case: Gujarat High Court Issues Show Cause To Then Ahmedabad District Collector

While hearing the plea of a 65-year-old man against his "illegal detention" for allegedly being in wrongful possession of a property in 2023, the Gujarat High Court last week asked the then Ahmedabad District Collector to explain why proceedings for "dereliction of duty" should not be initiated against him, after noting that a committee headed by the officer proceeded to lodge an FIR against the man without perusing the record. A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi in its order said, "From the original record of the enquiry conducted by the committee constituted under the Gujarat Land Grabbing Act 2020, it is evident that the committee headed by the Collector, Ahmedabad formed opinion on the complaint simply by perusal of the report of the City Deputy collector, without perusal of the record which has lead to making of the report by the City Deputy Collector. The Court further said that the Principal Secretary and the Principal Secretary, Revenue Department be informed to conduct an inquiry into the manner in which the committee headed by the collector, decided the complaint without perusing the "original record of the complaint", and solely on the basis of the City Deputy Collector who had submitted a "wrong report". On the state's submission that preliminary inquiry was conducted by city deputy collector which was not placed before the committee and that this was would be "rectified and needful be done", the high court orally said, "Can you bring those seven days back?