SURESH CHANDRA Vs. DISTRICT JUDGE, NAINITAL AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been preferred against a judgment of the Additional District Judge, Nainital, dated April 22, 1978, dismissing an appeal, of the petitioner filed under Sec. 9 of the U. P. Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1972 U.P. Act No. XXII of 1972).

(2.) The prescribed Authority Tarai and Bhabhar, issued notice under S, 4 of U. P. Act XXIT of 1972 to the petitioner calling upon him to show cause as to why he was not liable to be evicted from plot No. 22/204. situated in village Ghukti in Tarai area of Tarai and Bhabar Sub Division. The petitioner filed an objection to the effect that he was a resident of the former North West Frontier Province of British India and during the partition of India he came to settle in village Chukti. He alleged that he purchased the land from one Hamid Ali Khan who was the tenant of the land in dispute and the name of the petitioner was wrongly shown as trespasser. The petitioner claimed that he had been in cultivatory possession of the land for more than thirty years and, as such, acquired rights of hereditary tenant and became Sirdar thereof.

(3.) The prescribed Authority rejected the objection of the petitioner and held that the possession of the petitioner over the disputed land was recent and that he had failed to establish that the same had been allotted lo him. The Prescribed Authority also held that the land was public premises within the meaning of Sec. 2 (e) of U. P. Act XXII of 1972.