PUSHPENDRA SINGH Vs. L G OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Vide Notification of 2nd April 1996, (Annexure P-1), issued by the Revenue Department of Government of NCT of Delhi by invoking Section 154 of the Delhi Land Reforms Act, 1954, the uncultivated land of Gaon Sabha (specified in column III and Annexure 'A' to 'N' annexed to Notification, situated in Southern Ridge in respect of Villages mentioned in Column 'II' of table appended to the Notification as surplus land and excluded the same from vesting in Gaon Sabha) was placed at the disposal of Forest Department of Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi. A corrigendum in the aforesaid Notification is sought by the petitioners to exclude Khasra No. 435 situated within the Revenue Estate of Village Neb Sarai, Tehsil Mehrauli, New Delhi by way of this writ petition.

(2.) It is asserted in this petition that the predecessor of petitioners were allotted residential plots of land under Government's 20-Point Program in Khasra No. 435 of Village Neb Sarai, Tehsil Mehrauli, New Delhi being landless villagers and they had raised pucca construction over the said land in the year 1974-75 and the petitioners have been in continuous and uninterrupted possession of their houses on the land in question and petitioners further asserted that they have been provided Ration Card, Election Identity Cards, Electricity, water and telephone connections at the residential addresses of the petitioners on the land in question. Petitioners expressed ignorance about the aforesaid Notification (Annexure P-1) and it was in January 2003, they claim to have learnt about it, when representative of the respondents had visited the site in question and had threatened to demolish the houses of the petitioners. This had led to filing of the present writ petition.

(3.) The stand taken by the respondents in the counter affidavit is that the petitioners are in illegal occupation of the land in question as they have no title documents in their favour to establish their claim upon the land in question and in compliance of the orders of 25th January, 1996 and 13th March, 1996 of the Apex Court in W.P. (C) No. 4677/1985, titled as M.C. Mehta vs. Union of India and Ors., vide impugned Notification, the land in question has been transferred to the Forest Department. It is specifically denied by the respondents that the land in question was ever allotted to petitioners under Government's 20-Point Program as claimed by them.