BANT SINGH Vs. JOINT DIRECTOR, PANCHAYAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The compendium of the facts, culminating in the commencement, relevant for disposal of the present writ petition filed by petitioners-Bant Singh and others, for quashing the impugned orders (Annexures P-3 and P-4) and emanating from the record, is that originally the respondent-Gram Panchayat, Hussainpura (for brevity "the Gram Panchayat") filed a petition (Annexure P-1) for ejectment of the petitioners from the land in question before the District Development and Panchayat Officer, exercising the powers of Collector, invoking the provisions of Section 7 of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 (hereinafter to be referred as "the Act"). The Gram Panchayat claimed that although it (Gram Panchayat) is the owner but the petitioners have taken the illegal possession of the land in dispute.

(2.) In the wake of notice, the petitioners appeared and filed reply (Annexure P-2) to the application claiming themselves to be the owners and in continuous possession of the land in dispute for a period of more than twelve years preceding to the commencement of the Act, without payment of rent. The petitioners claimed that they are still in possession and their possession is protected under Section 4 of the Act. Some of the petitioners, being non-proprietors in the village, were stated to have constructed their residential houses on the land in dispute. The similar application filed by the Gram Panchayat against them was stated to have earlier been dismissed by the Collector vide order dated 31.03.1986. Therefore, the second petition was not maintainable.

(3.) The case set-up by the petitioners in brief, insofar as relevant, was that the land in dispute does not fall within the ambit of Shamlat Deh and, thus, the present application (Annexure P-1) was not maintainable. It will not be out of place to mention here that the petitioners have stoutly denied all other allegations and prayed for dismissal of the application preferred by the Gram Panchayat under Section 7 of the Act.