Man loses 54-yr-old claim to govt land

Vadodara: After the district court turned down a man’s claim over a disputed land plot at Chandod village, the police will finally be able to have its own building here.
Petitioner Raju Vaghari had appealed against the order of a lower court that ruled in favour of the state government, stating his claim to the plot to be illegal. He had claimed that the land plot was in possession of his family for 54 years, but in 2006 the talati, sarpanch and taluka development officer cancelled the assessment of his land and had handed it over to the police department.

The petitioner said that the original owner of the land was Fatehsinh Gohil, who had handed it over to his father. After the death of his father, the land passed on to him. However, the defendants told the court that as per the revenue records, the plot of government land was marked as a cricket ground since 1951 whereupon he had constructed his hut.

The court of principal district and sessions judge, J C Doshi upheld the order of the lower court as it had assessed all documents before deciding the issue and petitioner did not have a case. During the hearing of the case, he had produced some copies of electricity bill as evidence of possession of the land, but it did not have the disputed property’s number. Vaghari could not submit any more evidence supporting his claim that his family was in possession of the land for 54 years.