Permission rejection under Section 63AA Tenancy Act quashable upon curing documentation defects for industrial conversion.

The petitioner sought to establish an industrial unit on agricultural land situated at Revenue Survey No. 268/8, Village Kothav, Vadodara

An application dated 25.02.2024 was filed under Section 63AA of the Gujarat Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948, seeking permission for bona-fide industrial use

The Collector, Vadodara, rejected the application on 22.04.2024 because the petitioner failed to produce the layout plan and industrial use certificate

The Special Secretary, Revenue Department (Appeals) (SSRD) upheld this rejection via an order dated 04.11.2025

The petitioner subsequently obtained the missing documents and filed the present writ petition to quash the previous orders and seek a fresh hearing

1. Whether the orders passed by the Collector and the SSRD should be set aside to allow for a fresh application in light of subsequent curative evidence (possession of layout plans and certificates)

Section 63AA of the Gujarat Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948, which provides a mechanism for the purchase and conversion of agricultural land for "bona-fide industrial use"

Article 226 of the Constitution of India to ensure that administrative rejections based on curable procedural defects do not permanently bar statutory rights when conditions are subsequently met

The Court noted that the initial rejection by the Collector was purely technical, based on the non-production of requisite documentation (layout plan and industrial certificate) that was unavailable at the time of the original application

During the hearing, the petitioner demonstrated that these defects had been cured as they were now in possession of the necessary documents

Counsel for the State (AGP) acknowledged that the impugned orders were a result of these missing documents

The Court reasoned that given this "subsequent development," it was in the interest of justice to quash the restrictive orders to allow the respondent authority to evaluate a fresh application on its merits with the complete documentation, rather than being bound by previous negative findings based on an incomplete record

The Court held that the petitioner is permitted to file a fresh application under Section 63AA of the Tenancy Act, and directed the Collector, Vadodara, to decide said application on its own merits, uninfluenced by the previous rejections, within the statutory period

Rule was made absolute with no order as to costs