Gujarat HC stays Vadodara Deputy Collector's notice under Disturbed Areas Act

Gujarat High Court has granted ad-interim relief by staying, until the next date of hearing, a notice issued by the Deputy Collector of Vadodara in a 2018 land transaction in the Dhuldhoyawad Fatehpura area, on grounds that it was executed without prior permission under the Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Eviction from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act, 1991 (commonly known as the Disturbed Areas Act).

The notice issued by the Deputy Collector under Section 5 of the Gujarat Disturbed Areas Act, 1991, has ask the petitioners to show cause why the property sale transaction dated June 25, 2018, should not be cancelled. The authorities have alleged that the sale was carried out without obtaining the mandatory prior permission required under the Act.

The notice, dated November 4, 2025, was issued under Section 5 of the Act to the petitioners, questioning the validity of a registered sale deed executed on June 25, 2018. In that transaction, the petitioners had purchased the land from Patel Sanjay via a registered sale deed with the Sub-Registrar, Vadodara City. 

The petitioners attributed the lack of prior permission under the Act to inadvertence. According to the petition, no objection or dispute arose regarding the transaction for nearly one-and-half years until March 6, 2020, when the Deputy Collector issued the first notice challenging the sale for want of permission under the Act.

In response, the petitioners filed an application in March 2020 under Section 4(2) of the Act seeking post-facto (retrospective) approval for the 2018 transaction. The application has remained pending and undecided to date. The petitioners have claimed that, upon repeated inquiries about the status, they were informed that the relevant records are not traceable in the Deputy Collector's office.

Subsequently, on August 25, 2025, the petitioners sold the same land to Soyel Ansari, for which permission under the Disturbed Areas Act was duly obtained on August 18, 2025.

Gujarat High Court, while issuing notice to the Deputy Collector, Vadodara, returnable on February 17, 2026, granted the ad-interim stay on the notice to prevent any immediate action on the 2018 sale transaction pending further hearing.