Chhattisgarh HC Tells Collector To Decide Landowners’ Sale-Permission Plea, Considering PWD’s No-Objection, Preferably Within 60 Days

The petitioners sought permission to sell jointly owned land at Village Tedesara, Rajnandgaon. They stated that the Collector had restricted sale and purchase of land in specified villages due to a proposed railway line, and that their application for permission, submitted on 21 August 2025, remained undecided

The Executive Engineer, Public Works Department, issued a no-objection memorandum stating that the land was outside the proposed bypass alignment; the Sub-Divisional Officer and Land Acquisition Officer also reported that the land was approximately 1.5 km from the proposed railway line and was not likely to be acquired.

The petitioners approached the High Court alleging that the Collector had not acted on the application despite the memorandum and report.

The Court cited no specific statute, regulation, or precedent. It applied the limited principle that the competent authority must consider and decide the pending application in accordance with law, taking relevant material into account.

The Court also made clear that its direction to decide the application did not express any view on its merits.

The Public Works Department’s memorandum stated that the land did not fall within the proposed bypass alignment and that the department had no objection to its sale or purchase; the related report also stated that the land was not likely to be acquired for the railway line.

In light of that material and the Collector’s failure to decide the application, the Court directed the Collector to consider it, while leaving the substantive decision to the Collector under the applicable law.

The Court declined to determine whether permission should ultimately be granted.

The Court expressed no opinion on the merits and left the Collector free to decide the matter on its own merits.