Page No.# 1/6 GAHC010016962025 2025:GAU-AS:1428 THE GAUHATI HIGH COURT (HIGH COURT OF ASSAM, NAGALAND, MIZORAM AND ARUNACHAL PRADESH) Case No. : WP(C)/677/2025 CHANDRIKA SHARMA S/O- LATE NOURANGI SHARMA, VILL. AND P.O. AMSING (JORABAT), P.S. NOONMATI, DIST. KAMRUP(M), ASSAM, PIN- 781027. VERSUS THE STATE OF ASSAM AND 2 ORS. REP. BY THE COMMISSIONER AND SECRETARY TO THE GOVT. OF ASSAM, LAND REVENUE DEPARTMENT, DISPUR, GUWAHATI-6. 2:THE DISTRICT COMMISSIONER KAMRUP METRO DIST. KAMRUP METRO ASSAM 3:THE CIRCLE OFFICER SONAPUR REVENUE CIRCLE DIST.- KAMRUP METRO ASSA Advocate for the Petitioner : MD B ISLAM, MR. S S AHMED,MR A ALAM,MR. S UDDIN Advocate for the Respondent : GA, ASSAM, SC, REVENUE BEFORE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE MANISH CHOUDHURY ORDER Date : 12-02-2025 Heard Mr. B. Islam, learned counsel for the petitioner; Ms. P.R. Mahanta, Page No.# 2/6 learned Standing Counsel, Revenue Department for the respondent no. 1; and Mr. N. Goswami, learned Junior Government Advocate, Assam for the respondent nos. 2 & 3. 2. In this writ petition, the petitioner has projected that he is a co-pattadar in respect of a plot of land measuring 1 Bigha 1 Katha 15 Lessas, covered by Dag no. 738 & K.P. Patta no. 12, situate at Revenue Village – Amsing [Jorabat], Mouza – Panbari, Sonapur Revenue Circle, District – Kamrup [M] [‘the subject- plot’, for short]. 3. The petitioner has stated that he is the owner of an area of land measuring 1 Katha 14 Lessas out of the subject-plot which he had purchased by a Registered Sale Deed no. 7658 dated 15.11.2002. After purchase of the land measuring 1 Katha 14 Lessas, the name of the petitioner has been mutated in the revenue records and the petitioner has been paying land revenue regularly. 4. It is the further case of the petitioner that seeking demarcation of his area of land measuring 1 Katha 14 Lessas, the petitioner had submitted a number of applications before the respondent no. 3 on various dates – 09.12.2020, 12.07.2021, 04.01.2021, 12.09.2022, 27.01.2022, 09.01.2024 and 06.01.2025. As the respondent authorities, more particularly, the respondent no. 3 has not acted upon those applications submitted by the petitioner seeking demarcation of his area of land, the petitioner has approached this Court by the present writ petition seeking inter alia a direction to the respondent authorities to dispose of the applications and to demarcate the boundaries of the petitioner’s area of land measuring 1 Katha 14 Lessas falling within the subject-plot. 5. Ms. Mahanta, learned Standing Counsel, Revenue Department and Mr. Page No.# 3/6 Goswami, learned Junior Government Advocate for the respondents have, in unison, submitted that ‘demarcation’ is a notified service under the Assam Right to Public Services Act, 2012 and therefore, the petitioner is required to submit his application for ‘demarcation’ as per the prescribed procedure by depositing the requisite fee. 6. The Assam Right to Public Services Act, 2012 [‘the Act’, for short] has been enacted by the Assam Legislative Assembly in order to provide for delivery of notified public services to the people of the State of Assam within the stipulated time limit and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto. The Act received the assent of the Governor of Assam on 27.04.2012 and was notified by a notification dated 02.05.2012. The Act has been published in the Assam Gazette in its issue dated 02.05.2012. As per Section 2[h], ‘Right to Public Service’ means right to obtain the notified service under this Act from time to time within the stipulated time limit as described under Section 5 and as per Section 2[i], ‘notified service’ means any service notified by the State Government under Section 4. Section 5 of the Act has laid down that every eligible person shall have the right to obtain the services in accordance with the Act within the time bound period as notified under Section 4. It is the liability of Government Servant to deliver services, under Section 6 of the Act, within the stipulated period. The stipulated time limit, as per Section 7[1], starts from the date when the application for obtaining a required notified service is submitted to the Designated Public Servant or to a person subordinate to him authorized to receive the application. Such application shall be duly acknowledged. As per Section 7[2], the Designated Public Servant on receipt of an application under sub-section [1] shall, within the stipulated time limit, provide the notified service or reject the application and in case of rejection of application, he shall record Page No.# 4/6 the reasons in writing and communicate to the person making the application,- [i] the reasons for such rejection; [ii] the period within which an appeal against such rejection may be preferred; and [iii] the particulars of the Appellate Authority. Section 8 of the Act has provided for an appeal before the Appellate Authority and also for a review before the Reviewing Authority. 7. By an Office Memorandum bearing no. RRG.18/2017/Pt/163 dated 21.12.2020 of the Government of Assam in the Revenue and Disaster Management [Reforms] Department, ‘demarcation’ has been declared to be a notified service under Section 4 of the Act. For ready reference, the contents of the Office Memorandum dated 21.12.2020 are extracted hereinbelow in its entirety :- GOVERNMENT OF ASSAM REVENUE & DISASTER MANAGEMENT [REFORMS] DEPARTMENT ASSAM SECRETARIAT [CIVIL] : DISPUR GUWAHATI-6 No.RRG.18/2017/Pt/163 Dated Dispur the 21st December, 2020. Office Memorandum Subject : Declaration of services under Revenue & D.M. Department as per provision of the Section 4 of the Assam Right to Public Service Act, 2012. With a view to provide the delivery of Public Service to the eligible citizens within stipulated time limit the following service of the Revenue & D.M. Department has been identified as Notified service under Section 4 of the Assam Right to Public Services Act, 2012. Service Name : Demarcation Certificate [where there is no dispute on title]. An important service which is provided by the Revenue & Disaster Management Department is the issue of Demarcation Certificate. This certificate is required to establish the real extent/interest of the land and to establish actual boundary of a particular Dag as per cadastral map of the revenue village/town. This service can be obtained in the Offices of the Circle Officers. Page No.# 5/6 Eligibility Criteria : Any citizen of Assam who is recorded Pattadar of the scheduled land can avail this service Procedural Steps for Issuance of Demarcation Certificate : The applicant has to apply in Standard Application format before Circle Officer of the concerned Circle and Circle Officer will endorse the same to the concerned Dealing Assistant/Copyist. The Dealing Assistant/Copyist after verifying the application, forwards to the concerned Lot Mandal for field verification. Lot Mandal submits the field verification report to Supervisor Kanungo for verification and Supervisor Kanungo after verifying the report forwards to the Circle Officer. Circle Officer, based on the report submitted by Lot Mandal and Supervisor Kanungo approves/rejects the demarcation application. Once demarcation is allowed by the Circle Officer, the Dealing Assistant prepares a notice regarding the demarcation of the proposed land and it is served to all the copattadars of the concerned Dag and pattadars of the adjacent Dags and sends it to Circle Officer for signing. The LM then visits the S/L on the fixed date and demarcate the concerned Dag in presence of all the stakeholders. Documents to be annexed along with the Application : 1. Applicant must submit duly signed Application form mentioning details if the scheduled dag. 2. Up to date land revenue receipt. User Charges : Rs.30/- Citizen Charter: Annexure-1 Time-line : 30 [thirty] working Days. Sd/-[Avinash Joshi, IAS] Principal Secretary to the Govt. of Assam Revenue & D.M. Department. 8. It is settled that if there is an alternative, efficacious and adequate remedy, then a person should avail that remedy instead of approaching this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. If it is a case of simple demarcation, as it has been projected by the petitioner, the petitioner should avail the remedy by Page No.# 6/6 applying for the notified public service [demarcation] under the Act first by approaching jurisdictional Designated Public Servant by submitting the prescribed application form and by depositing of the requisite user charges. On receipt of such application, the jurisdictional Designated Public Servant shall acknowledge the same first and thereafter, shall proceed to dispose of the said application as per the procedure laid down in the Act within the stipulated time period prescribed for the said notified public service [demarcation]. It is accordingly observed. 9. In view of the availability of the alternative and efficacious statutory remedy, the writ petition is not entertained, reserving the liberty to the petitioner to avail statutory remedy under the Act, available to him under the law. JUDGE Comparing Assistant