ORDER : R. DEVDAS J. The petitioner was granted fishing rights in respect of Bargavathi lake, situated at Uduvege Village, by the respondent No.2-Village Panchayat. The petitioner was initially granted rights on 09.01.2015, for a period of three years from 2014-17. However, it has been pointed by the learned counsel for respondent No.4 that the petitioner was in fact granted fishing rights in the year 2014 for one year and thereafter the petitioner filed a writ petition before this Court and during the pendency of the said writ petition, at the assurance of respondent No.2-Village Panchayat, writ petition was withdrawn and thereafter lease was granted for three years. However, the State of Karnataka, Department of Fisheries issued Government Order dated 31.03.2017, stating that the year 2016-17 was declared as drought period and there shall be an extension of one year with respect to the fishing rights granted for the year 2016-17 subject to the condition that the lease amount or licence amount was already paid by the licensees. 2. Consequently, respondent No.2-Village Panchayat passed a resolution dated 09.07.2018 to extend the period of license granted to the petitioner herein till 2018-19. However, in the very same resolution, decision was taken to extend the license period from 2019-2020 and 2020-21 also. It is noticeable that while the said resolution was being passed, the Panchayat Development Officer raised an objection that such decision would be contrary to the Government Order. Nevertheless, the panchayat proceeded to extend the license of the petitioner till October 2021. 3. Being aggrieved of the extension granted to the petitioner, respondent No.4 herein gave representation to the respondent No.2-Village Panchayat, stating that extension could not have been granted. Nevertheless, when Village panchayat did not respond positively, respondent No.4 filed W.P.No.12990/2020 impleading petitioner herein as respondent No.5. Thereafter when the petitioner herein sought to deposit the bid amount in compliance of the resolution passed by the respondent No.2-Village Panchayat, respondent No.2-Village panchayat, did not receive the said amount. Therefore petitioner herein also filed another writ petition in W.P.No.14507/2020 seeking directions to the respondent No.2-Village panchayat to receive the bid amount. Nevertheless, both the writ petitions viz., W.P.No.12990/2020 filed by the respondent No.4 herein and W.P.No.14507/2020 filed by petitioner herein were disposed of by order dated 12.02.2021, on the ground that fresh resolution dated 25.11.2020 has been passed by the respondent No.2-Village panchayat. 4. Nevertheless, both the writ petitions viz., W.P.No.12990/2020 filed by the respondent No.4 herein and W.P.No.14507/2020 filed by petitioner herein were disposed of by order dated 12.02.2021, on the ground that fresh resolution dated 25.11.2020 has been passed by the respondent No.2-Village panchayat. 4. As per the resolution dated 25.11.2020, respondent No.2-Village panchayat took note of the communication dated 28.11.2020 said to have been made by the Department of Fisheries raising objections to the fact that from 2014-15 to 2020-21 October, fishing rights has been granted to the petitioner herein. The Government Orders stipulate that priority and preference should be given to fishing societies first and thereafter only when there is no eligible society to which the fishing rights could be granted, then the other persons could be granted fishing rights. However, respondent No.2-Village panchayat proceeds to hold that one another society namely Sri.Gangaparameshwari Multipurpose Fishermen Co-operative Society has not produced the required documents. Therefore it was not eligible for grant of fishing rights. Consequently, it was resolved that fishing rights with respect of Bargavathi lake shall be granted to respondent No.4 society herein for a period of three years. Consequently, the office order dated 14.01.2021, at Annexure-J was issued, granting fishing rights to the respondent No.4-Society. The petitioner being aggrieved by the resolution dated 13.01.2021 passed by the respondent No.2-Village panchayat and the office order dated 14.01.2021, has filed this writ petition. 5. Learned counsel Sri.M.R.Rajagopal, appearing for petitioner submits that the resolution passed by the respondent No.2-Village panchayat is contrary to its earlier resolution granting fishing rights in favour of the petitioner which was valid upto October 2021. It is submitted that without cancelling the fishing rights granted in favour of the petitioner, the respondent No.2-Village panchayat could not have been proceeded to grant fishing rights in favour of the respondent No.4-Society. 6. Per contra, learned counsels for respondent No.2-Village panchayat and respondent No.4-Society seek to justify the impugned resolution and office order passed by the respondent No.2-Village panchayat. Learned HCGP, representing the respondent-State submits that respondent No.2-Village Panchayat has taken note of the Government Orders and has rightly come to conclusion that the earlier resolutions passed by the Village Panchayat granting fishing rights to the petitioner was not in compliance with the Government Orders and therefore the Village Panchayat has rightly granted the fishing rights in favour of the respondent No.4. 7. 7. Having heard the learned counsels and on perusing the petition papers, this Courts finds that although the fishing rights that were earlier granted to the petitioner which was to be continued till October 2021, is not in compliance of Government Orders governing the grant of fishing rights, nevertheless the decision taken to curtail the rights of the petitioner cannot be sustained. In terms of the Government Orders, especially the notification dated 21.02.2014, in respect of lakes falling under purview of Grama Panchayats, preference has to be given to local fishermen and local fishing co-operative societies. It appears that consequent to two writ petitions that is W.P.No.12990/2020 and W.P.No.14507/2020 being filed by the rival parties herein, the respondent No.2-Village Panchayat decided to call for applications on 01.01.2021. Consequently, respondent No.4-Society herein and one more society namely Sri.Gangaparameshwari Multipurpose Fishermen Co-operative Society seems to have filed the applications. The respondent No.2-Village panchayat found that the other society was not eligible and therefore it decides to grant the fishing rights in favour of the respondent No.4 herein. 8. During the course of this proceedings it is brought to the notice of this Court that on 06.11.2019, petitioner herein has submitted the bid amount of Rs.88,000/-including the escalation of 10% compared to the previous license fee and thereafter the petitioner has released fingerlings into the lake. It is submitted that when once the Panchayat has accepted the license fee and the petitioner has released the fingerlings into the lake, he should atleast be given the benefit of catching the full grown fishes. This submission seems to be reasonable. The respondent No.2-Village panchayat has taken decisions without application of mind. It was its original decision to extend the fishing rights in favour of the petitioner without calling for any applications which is intrinsically a decision which is not in accordance with law. Nevertheless when the petitioner has purchased fingerlings and released them in the lake, he should be permitted to harvest the full grown fishes. The petitioner should be given the benefit of fishing for which he has paid the license fee. 9. For the foregoing reasons, this Court is of the considered opinion that impugned resolutions passed by the respondent No.2-Village panchayat are required to be interfered with. The petitioner should be given the benefit of fishing for which he has paid the license fee. 9. For the foregoing reasons, this Court is of the considered opinion that impugned resolutions passed by the respondent No.2-Village panchayat are required to be interfered with. Since the license fee was collected from the petitioner during the November, 2019 and by this time, fishes would have grown, the petitioner should be permitted to net the full grown fishes. The petitioner shall be permitted to net the fishes in the lake in question within a period of one month from today. At any rate, rights of the petitioner with respect to the fishing rights shall come to an end by 31.03.2021. Thereafter, respondent No.2-Village panchayat may proceed to grant fishing rights in accordance with law. 10. Consequently impugned resolutions dated 25.11.2020, 13.01.2021 and office order dated 14.01.2021 of the respondent No.2-Village Panchayat are hereby quashed and is set aside. If respondent No.2-Village panchayat has collected any license fee from the respondent No.4 the same shall be returned to the respondent No.4 within a period of two weeks from today. After 31.03.2021, the respondent No.2-Village panchayat may proceed to call for applications for grant of fishing rights in accordance with law and thereafter affirm rights in favour of the eligible fishermen or society, as noticed hereinabove. Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of.