JASBIR Vs. COMMISSIONER AMBALA DIVISION, AMBALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this Order, I propose to dispose of two writ petitions, i.e., CWP No.3694 of 1988 Jasbir v. Commissioner Ambala Division, Ambala, and others, and CWP No. 3695 of 1988 Ram Chander v. Commissioner Ambala Division, Ambala and others, wherein challenge has been made to Order dated 25.06.1987 (Annexure-P-3/T), vide which two revision petitions of the Gram Panchayat/respondent No. 4, had been allowed by the Commissioner Ambala Division, holding therein that the Order passed by the Assistant Collector 1st Grade, Rohtak, converting the application under Section 7 of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), into a title suit under Section 13 of the said Act, is unjustified.

(2.) IT is the contention of the petitioners in the writ petitions that the application, which was preferred by the Gram Panchayat/respondent No. 4, under Section 7 of the Act for ejectment of the petitioners on the ground that they are in unauthorised possession, is not maintainable as it is not the owner of the land and had, thus, laid challenge to the title of the Gram Panchayat. They had claimed that they are owners of the land in dispute and further that the land does not fall within the definition of Shamlat Deh as provided under Section 2 (g) of the Act. Since the question of title of the property was involved in the case, the Assistant Collector 1st Grade, Rohtak, had rightly converted the application under Section 7 of the Act preferred by the Gram Panchayat into one under Section 13 of the Act as the suit for determining the title of the land. The application preferred by the Gram Panchayat was dismissed on the ground that the petitioners were the owner in possession of the land and the Gram Panchayat did not have the title to the land in question as the Gram Panchayat failed to prove before the Court that the land in question was being used for common purposes. It has further been pleaded that an Appeal was preferred against the said Order by the Gram Panchayat before the Collector, Rohtak, who vide Order dated 05.05.1986, dismissed the same. The revision petition preferred by the Gram Panchayat, was allowed by the Commissioner, Amabla Division, vide Order dated 25.06.1987 (Annexure- P-3/T).

(3.) I have gone through the record of the case and have heard counsel for respondent No. 4-Gram Panchayat.