Village committee has blocked the public road. I am from a village in Odisha, India, I have two separate plots which are in my name and they are adjacent to each other and their boundaries joined. In front of both the plots there is government land and in front of that land there is the main road. I have built my home in the first plot and have not done anything in the second plot. My village committee is allowing me only a single passage from my home to the main road but they are blocking the passage to the main road from my second plot. And they are threatening me to boycott from the village if I demand a road for my second plot. Is it legal from my village committee or by government rules?
Asked from: Odisha
You have the right to access the public road without fear and obstruction. The village committee lacks the authority to obstruct the public road. The act of blocking the public road and issuing threats against those seeking access to it constitutes an offence.
It is imperative that you promptly file a complaint against the individual who has illegally obstructed the road. In the Hari Ram vs. Jyoti Prasad and Anr. (2011) 2 SCC 682 the hon’ble Supreme Court has held that:
Any act of encroachment is a wrong committed by the doer. Such an encroachment when made to a public property like encroachment to public road would be a graver wrong, as such wrong prejudicially affects a number of people and therefore is a public wrong.
Whoever voluntarily obstructs any person so as to prevent that person from proceeding in any direction in which that person has a right to proceed is said to wrongfully restrain that person. It is punishable under Section 341 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
You should also move an application to the local Sub-Divisional Magistrate for taking action against the miscreants under Section 145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (crpc). Now Section 164 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023. For more legal help please visit Kanoon India.
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