UNION OF INDIA Vs. DEWAN CHAND PASHWARIA ETC

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment will dispose of five appeals, Regular Second Appeal Nos. 1350 and 1380 of 1968 and 733, 734 and 777 of 1969 as a common question of law is involved in all of them. For the purpose of this judgment, the facts of Regular Second Apeal No. 1350 of 1968 have been noticed.

(2.) Dewan Chand respondent, is in occupation of Bungalow No. 19-A situated within the Amritsar Cantonment area. The site under this bungalow and the vacant site in dispute was given as a grant by the Government to his predecessors which was regulated by the provisions of (Bengal Army Regulations) Governor General's order No. 179 dated September 12, 1836 (hereinafter referred as Order No. 179). He was served with a notice dated July 4, 1962 by the Under Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Defence, intimating that the area measuring 0.68 acres out of the said site had been resumed by the President of India and he was required to surrender its possession to the Military Estate Officer, Punjab Circle, Jullundur Cantt, on or before August 20, 1962. In the event of his failure to do so, the Military Estate Officer was authorised to resume its physical possession. The present suit was filed by the respondent to challenge the validity of that notice and for a permanent injunction restraining the defendant from taking possession of the site in dispute except under due process of law.

(3.) The suit was contested by the Union of India who pleaded that the site in dispute had been rightly resumed in accordance with the terms of the grant and that after the resumption, the Government was entitled to enter into possession in pursuance of the notice issued by the Under Secretary on behalf of Government of India. The trial Court, after recording evidence of the parties, found that there was no proof on the record that the grant in dispute was governed by Order No. 179 and consequently held that the notice of resumption was invalid.