A Human rights organisation — Navsarjan — filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday, urging it to direct the state government to give possession of lands allotted to the landless Dalits in Surendranagar district.

The organisation has filed the petition in this regard for the second time after the state government did not act despite an HC order earlier.

According to the details of the matter, the government had given around 6,000 acres land to the Dalits of Lakhtar, Limbdi, Wadhwan and Sayla talukas of Surendranagar for farming.

The land had become surplus under the provisions of the Agricultural Land Ceiling Act.

The land was, however, not handed over to the concerned Dalits, after which Navsarjan filed a PIL in the 1990s. In 1999, following a similar PIL, the High Court had directed the government to hand over the land to the Dalits as early as possible and not later than June 2000.

Now, the petitioner has stated that the government and the district administration have failed to fulfil the direction issued by the HC in many parts of the four talukas.

The petition cites several reasons for the Dalits not getting the land. It says that all the land meant for Dalits has been encroached upon by non-Dalits. The land has been given only on paper, but in many cases, it does not exist where it is allotted and is not even measured by the district administration.

The petitioner’s counsel, Hemang Shah, who argued the matter in the court of Chief Justice K S Radhakrishnan and Justice Akil Kureshi, said the court has asked the government to file a reply.

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