Allahabad HC Orders Restoration of Weaver Colony Quarter to Widow After State Fails to Produce Allotment Records
A Division Bench directed the Assistant Director, Handloom and Textile Industries, Varanasi to hand over Quarter No. 3, Bunkar Colony to widow Kamrunnisha and execute a transfer deed in her favour, drawing an adverse inference against the State for its failure to produce the allotment list when specifically ordered to do so.
The Allahabad High Court, in a writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, allowed the petition of Kamrunnisha, the widow of late Mati Ullah — the original allottee of Quarter No. 3, Bunkar Colony, Nati Imli (Labour Colony Chauraha), District Varanasi. The Division Bench comprising Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Indrajeet Shukla, with the judgment authored by Justice Indrajeet Shukla, directed immediate restoration of possession of the locked portion of the quarter and ordered the execution of a transfer deed in Kamrunnisha's name. The Court drew an adverse inference against the State after it repeatedly failed to place the colony's allotment list on record despite a specific direction to do so, and found that the State's own orders and committee records consistently acknowledged Mati Ullah as a valid occupant.
The Dispute Over Quarter No. 3, Bunkar Colony
Quarter No. 3 at Bunkar Colony, Nati Imli, Varanasi was allotted to Mati Ullah under a State-sponsored housing scheme for silk weavers. The quarter admeasures 25 x 50 square feet. Mati Ullah was in possession and paying rent until his death, after which his widow Kamrunnisha inherited the possessory rights.
Two individuals — Mohd. Shoeb and Mohd. Juned — forcibly occupied a portion of the quarter. Kamrunnisha filed a police complaint on 21 September 2013, followed by representations to the District Magistrate, Varanasi on 26 February 2014 and 5 March 2014. On the strength of the representation, the Assistant Director, Handloom and Textile Industries, Varanasi Region issued notices to Mohd. Shoeb and Mohd. Juned directing them to vacate.
Kamrunnisha then filed Writ-C No. 27434 of 2014, which was disposed of on 19 May 2014. The Court directed the Assistant Director to pass appropriate orders after giving the unauthorised occupants a hearing, preferably within two months.
On 7 July 2014, the Assistant Director ordered Mohd. Shoeb and Mohd. Juned to vacate their portion within one week, failing which the Station Officer was directed to evict them and hand over possession to Kamrunnisha. Mohd. Shoeb and Mohd. Juned challenged this order through Writ-C No. 42854 of 2014. On 20 August 2014, a co-ordinate bench set aside the order dated 7 July 2014 on the ground that it was not in conformity with the directions issued on 19 May 2014, and directed the Assistant Director to pass a fresh order strictly in accordance with those directions.
Fresh proceedings followed. The Assistant Director framed two questions: whether Quarter No. 3 had been trespassed by Mohd. Shoeb and Mohd. Juned, and whether material produced by them showed they were the allottees. By order dated 18 October 2014, the Assistant Director found that Quarter No. 3 was originally allotted to Mati Ullah, and that Mohd. Shoeb and Mohd. Juned were trespassers, directing them to vacate within one week.
Mohd. Shoeb and Mohd. Juned challenged this order too, through Writ-C No. 59769 of 2014, which was dismissed on 11 November 2014. The High Court affirmed the finding that they were in unauthorised occupation of a property belonging to the State of Uttar Pradesh, Industries Department.
By an order of the Additional City Magistrate III, Varanasi dated 25 April 2015, the portion of Quarter No. 3 — comprising ground floor, second floor, eight rooms, and one hall — was vacated in the presence of police from Jaitpura Police Station, sealed, and the keys handed over to the Assistant Director, Handloom. Despite this eviction, the State declined to restore possession of the locked portion to Kamrunnisha.
The State's Contradictory Positions
The State's case, as set out in its counter affidavit, was that no allotment letter was available in the office and Kamrunnisha had produced no documentary evidence of allotment in favour of her husband. The State also contended that Kamrunnisha had constructed unauthorised shops on government land adjacent to Quarter No. 3 and was collecting rent from them. A warning letter dated 9 November 2022 had been issued directing removal of these constructions. On this basis, the State argued that the recovered portion of the quarter could not be restored to her.
The State further traced the background of the colony: M/s Silk Weaver Cooperative Societies Limited, Varanasi had been collecting rent but not depositing it in the treasury, leading to Government Orders dated 17 March 1981 and 18 October 1994. A Government Notification dated 9 September 1994 provided for the transfer of quarters in Bunkar Colony through the District Magistrate. The Director, Handloom and Textile Industries, U.P., Kanpur had written to the District Magistrate, Varanasi on 22 November 1994 requesting such transfer, but it was not carried out. Transfer proceedings had subsequently been stayed by an order of the Lucknow Bench of this Court in Writ Petition No. 1405 (M/B) of 1996, later dismissed on 8 March 2013, and reinitiated under directions issued on 10 July 2014.
The bench found the State's denial of allotment directly contradicted by the State's own conduct. A committee constituted under an order dated 16 March 1996 of the Additional District Magistrate (Administration), Varanasi had prepared a list of occupants of Bunkar Colony. At serial number 3 of that list, against Quarter No. 3, the name of Mati Ullah son of Hafiz Ullah was recorded. The list bore the signatures of the Assistant Director, Handicraft and Cloth Industries, Varanasi and was dated 19 June 1996.
The bench also noted that the State had not raised any objection to Kamrunnisha's locus — as the wife of the valid allottee — at the time of evicting Mohd. Shoeb and Mohd. Juned, nor when passing the order of 20 August 2014 in Writ-C No. 42854 of 2014. The orders dated 11 April 2014 and 18 October 2014 passed by respondent no. 4 themselves acknowledged the allotment in favour of Mati Ullah.
Court's Direction to Produce Allotment Records — and the Adverse Inference
When the writ petition came up on 9 March 2026, the bench was confronted with the inconsistency between the counter affidavit's denial of allotment and the finding in the order dated 18 October 2014 that Quarter No. 3 was originally allotted to Mati Ullah. The bench directed the State to place the allotment list of all allottees of the colony before the Court on affidavit, sworn by the Assistant Director, Handloom and Textile Industries, Varanasi Region, by the next date, failing which the officer would be required to appear in person.
On 31 March 2026 — the date on which the matter was reserved — the State respondents did not produce the allotment list. The bench recorded that it was left with no option but to draw an adverse inference against the State's position and to treat the finding in the order dated 18 October 2014, regarding allotment in favour of Mati Ullah, as correct. The bench observed that this finding had remained intact through several rounds of litigation.
Reasoning of the Division Bench
Justice Indrajeet Shukla, writing for the bench, held that once the State's own records and orders admitted allotment in favour of Mati Ullah, and once the unauthorised occupants had been evicted by lawful process, there was no justification for withholding possession of the locked portion from Kamrunnisha. The retention was described as “wholly illegal, arbitrary and without authority of law.”
The bench noted that the occupation and possession of Kamrunnisha and her husband had been recognised consistently: by the 1996 occupants' list prepared by the State's own committee, by the orders of respondent no. 4 in 2014, and by the fact that the State never disputed her locus during the eviction proceedings against Mohd. Shoeb and Mohd. Juned.
The bench also addressed the broader context of transfer of quarters. The State had itself resolved to execute transfer deeds in favour of weavers in occupation of Bunkar Colony quarters. Proceedings towards that end had been interrupted by court intervention and later revived. The committee constituted for identifying occupants had placed Mati Ullah at serial no. 3 of the list in 1996. The bench held that the death of a weaver husband could not be a ground to deny the same rights to his widow, observing that weaving is a hereditary art practised by all members of a weaver's family and that displacing a weaver's family from the colony upon the death of the head of the family was impermissible.
On the State's argument concerning the alleged unauthorised shops constructed by Kamrunnisha on adjacent government land, the bench did not treat this as a ground to withhold possession of Quarter No. 3 itself, given the established allotment and possessory history.
The bench also held that the filing of any suit by Mohd. Shoeb and Mohd. Juned — who had already been dispossessed — could not weaken Kamrunnisha's case for execution of the transfer deed.
Order
The writ petition was allowed. The order dated 19 May 2014 in Writ-C No. 27434 of 2014 was quashed. The Assistant Director, Handloom and Textile Industries, Varanasi Region, Varanasi — the fourth respondent — was directed to restore possession of the locked part of Quarter No. 3, Bunkar Colony, Nati Imli (Labour Colony Chauraha), District Varanasi to Kamrunnisha forthwith.
The Court further directed that a transfer deed be executed in favour of Kamrunnisha as the successor of late Mati Ullah, in terms of the order dated 19 May 2014 in Writ-C No. 27434 of 2014. No order as to costs was made.