Panaji (Goa) The Goa Foundation has approached Bombay High Court at Goa challenged the Inquiry Officer report declaring the Tiracol Land, where the proposed Golf Course project is planned, as ‘non-tenanted’ land.

The Division bench comprising Justices Gautam Patel and Nutan Sardesai today issued notice to State Government on the public interest litigation filed by the Foundation.

The matter is posted for admission and interim relief on November 14.

The PIL has prayed for setting aside of the Inquiry Officer’s, Deputy Collector Dharbandora Agnelo Fernandes report, and calling for fresh inquiry or any other alternative mechanism to conduct the Inquiry.

Deputy Collector in its report stated that the land in question was not vested with the tenants as on the date when the Goa Land Act came into force.

The petitioner recalled that the Court in its order dated March 31, had directed the Fernandes, to hear the Leading Hotels and the various parties to the dispute and submit a report on the tenancy status of the lands as of 2.11.1990, which is the date of the coming into force of the Goa Land Use Act, 1991.

The petitioner alleged that the Deputy Collector rejected the voluminous record of tenancy placed before him on grounds that he was bound by the decisions of several civil courts and mamlatdars which had held that the tenants’ names on the Forms I & XIV were in the nature of “erroneous entries” and therefore could be deleted from the records.

“The High Court itself had held that such decisions were doubtful in view of the fact that they had been arrived at on the basis of concessions from tenants and were not based on evidence. For this reason, the High Court had directed the parties to appear before the Deputy Collector so he could make an inquiry and find out what the situation was in 1990,” PIL stated.