GIAN DASS Vs. GRAM PANCHAYAT VILLAGE SUNNER KALAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The appeal relates to a judgment delivered by a learned Single Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Regular Second Appeal No. 895 of 1984. The Second Appeal was filed by the defendants, in a suit for possession. The suit had been decreed by both the trial court and the first appellate court on the ground that the plaintiff (appellant) herein is the Saunjidar of the land in dispute and he had been dispossessed forcibly and illegally. The High Court held that when a person is claiming a title, right or interest in the property in dispute either being a owner or a saunjidar or tenant, then the jurisdiction of the civil court is barred. Saunjidar right is an interest claimed by the plaintiff the appellant herein. Therefore, the civil court cannot adjudicate upon the matter. It is only the Collector under Section 11 of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act. 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) who can decide whether the plaintiff had any saunjidar rights in the property in dispute. Accordingly the appeal was allowed, judgment and decree passed by the courts below were set aside and the suit of the plaintiff-appellant herein were dismissed.

(3.) Learned Counsel for the appellant submitted that the High Court was not justified in disposing of the second appeal without formulating the substantial question or questions of law, as mandated by Section 100 of the Code.