HAR LAL Vs. GAON SABHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This civil revision is directed against order of the Additional District Judge acting as Land Acquisition Court, dated November 30, 1978, by which in a reference petition under Sections 30 & 31 of the Land Acquisition Act he had held that out of Khasra No. 183 located in revenue estate of Village Tuglaqabad, 3 Bighas of land stand vested in the Gaon Sabha and remaining 8 Biswas is owned by the petitioner.

(2.) The contention raised by the learned Counsel for the petitioner before me is that this Khasra number is part of his holding and no portion of the land comprised in this Khasra number could be vested in Gaon Sabha in view of Section 7 of the Delhi Land Reforms Act (for short 'the Act').

(3.) Section 7 of the Act lays down that all rights of an individual proprietor or proprietors pertaining to waste lands, grazing or.......... shall with effect from the commencement of this Act be terminated in accordance with the provision of Sub-section (2) and under Sub-section (2) the Deputy Commissioner has to pass an order in respect of such land divesting the individual proprietors from their rights and vest the same in Gaon Sabha. However, there is proviso to Sub-section (1) with the explanation which makes it clear that for the purposes of this Sub-section the "waste land" shall include cultivable and uncultivable waste area of the village ........except the unculti- vated area, (a) included in the holdings of such proprietor or proprietors. In nutshell, the provision of the statute is if there exists any waste land in a holding of a particular proprietor the same would not be treated as waste land for the purposes of Section 7(1). This provision came to be interpreted by a Division Bench of this Court in R.F.A.167/86, Sher Singh & Others v. Gaon Sabha & Others, decided on May 30, 1991 and it was held that waste land falling within the holding of a proprietor shall not be treated as waste land for purposes of Section 7(1) or Section 7(2) of the Act.