OM PRAKASH Vs. PRATAP SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS intra-court appeal impugns the judgment dated 25.11.2005 of the learned Single Judge in W.P.(C) No.4730/1998 preferred by the respondent No.1 Partap Singh. The said writ petition was filed impugning the order dated 20.08.1996 of the Financial Commissioner in the First Appeal under Section 185(3) of the Delhi Land Reforms Act, 1954 preferred by the appellant herein against the order dated 11.12.1995 of the Additional Collector, Delhi on a petition under Section 185 r/w Section 75(2) of the Act filed by the respondent No.1 Partap Singh for setting aside of the order dated 22.12.1986 of the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) / Revenue Assistant declaring (under Section 74(4) of the Act) the appellant herein as bhumidhar of land ad-measuring 4 Bighas 16 Biswas in Khasra No.525 situated in the Revenue Estate of village Kadipur, Delhi. This appeal was admitted for hearing and it was directed that if the appellant is in possession of the land in dispute, he shall not be dispossessed therefrom. The counsels have been heard and the written arguments filed by them perused.

(2.) IT is the case of the respondent No.1 that the said land was part of his holding and remained so even after the consolidation proceedings held in the village in the years 1951-52; however the status of the land, in the revenue records was recorded as ,,banjar kadim. It is further the case of the respondent No.1 that owing to the status of the land being recorded as ,,banjar kadim, upon the Delhi Land Reforms Act coming into force in the year 1954 and which provided for vesting of all uncultivated waste land in the Gaon Sabha, the said land was treated as vested in the Gaon Sabha of village Kadipur (respondent No.2 in this appeal). The respondent No.1 further admits to have not challenged the said vesting order but claims that notwithstanding the same he continued to be in possession of the land and over the years re-claimed the land and started cultivating the same.

(3.) THE respondent No.1, in or about the year 1976 i.e. just when the Gaon Sabha had allotted the said land to the appellant, instituted a suit in the Civil Court for declaration that the entries in the Khasra Girdawari of the said land in the name of the appellant and one Sh. Jai Singh were illegal and gave no power or authority to them to dispossess the respondent No.1 from the land without due process of law; injunction was also claimed against the appellant, the said Sh. Jai Singh and the Gaon Sabha from dispossessing the respondent No.1 from the said land. The case of the respondent No.1 in the plaint of the said suit was the same as recorded hereinabove. It was further the case of the respondent No.1 that since the Gaon Sabha had not filed any suit for his ejectment and the period of limitation therefor had lapsed, the respondent No.1 had become entitled to be declared a bhumidhar under Section 85 of the Act, of the said land. The said suit was decided vide judgment dated 14.11.1980; though the respondent No.1 and not the appellant was held to be in cultivatory possession of the land but it was held that the Civil Court had no jurisdiction; it was also held that though the respondent No.1 was in possession but was not entitled to the discretionary relief of injunction against dispossession because he was neither the bhumidhar nor the asami of the land and his possession thereof was of a trespasser; the suit was accordingly dismissed.