CHAIRMAN LUDHIANA IMPROVEMENT TRUST Vs. KANWALJIT SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) LUDHIANA Improvement Trust, LUDHIANA, (hereinafter referred to as "the appellant") acquired 8.4 acres land owned by the respondents as joint holders in a khata in the month of March, 1975. The land was acquired for construction of four storeyed flats. Under the scheme prepared by the trust no individual plots were to be carved out.

(2.) APPELLANT had framed `The Ludhiana Improvement Trust Land Disposal Rules, 1964' (hereinafter referred to as "the 1964 Rules"). Local displaced person was defined to mean a person whose land was acquired by the Trust for the execution of a scheme under the Punjab Town Improvement Act, 1922 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"). Rule 5(ii) provides that the Trust would fix a concessional price at which land comprised in a scheme will be sold to a local displaced person. The concessional price was not to be less then the cost price of the land, i.e. the estimated cost of acquisition of the land plus development charges etc. Not more than one plot of land when demarcated in to plots, was be sold to a local displaced person. Rule 6 provides for issuance of a public notice in an appropriate form in the prescribed manner inviting applications from the Local displaced person. The Land Officer after making enquiries as deemed fit as to the correctness of the statements made therein was to submit all the applications received upto the last date fixed for this purpose to the Chairman who in turn could sell the land to the applicants subject to confirmation by the Trust at the concessional price fixed by it under Rule 5(ii).

(3.) O 6.10.1994, respondents filed a representation seeking for allotment of five separate plots. On 2.5.1995 the Government of Punjab issued a notification vide memo No. 5/245/95 - 2DGHII/6195 mentioning therein that there was some ambiguity in the 1964 Rules regarding the number of plots to be allotted to the joint holders of a Khata of the land acquired. It was clarified that only one plot could be allotted to the joint Khata holders of the land acquired. The relevant portion of the said notification reads :