DALIP SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Since common questions of law and fact are involved in Civil Writ Petition Nos. 278, 279, 399 and 781 of 1980, the learned Counsel for the parities are agreed that they should be disposed of together. I propose to dispose them of by this judgment.

(2.) In order to appreciate the controversy, it will be advantageous to recapitulate the facts mentioned in Civil Writ Petition No. 781 of 1980. Dalip Singh, Petitioner, owned 637 kanals 3 marlas of land in village Chak Paliwal. His wife owned 51 kanals 8 marlas of land in village Jandawalia. He furnished a declaration on form 'A', as required by Rule 5(1) of the Punjab Land Reforms Rules, 1973 (hereinafter called the Rules') regarding the lands owned by him He clearly mentioned the names of the tenants, who were cultivating his land. Ujagar Singh, Kartar Singh, Har Kaur and Mohinder Kaur were the persons cultivating the land under the Petitioner on the appointed date, that is, the 24th January, 1971. The Collector took up the case of the Petitioner for determination of the surplus area. The Petitioner, while appearing before the Collector raised inter alia the objection that the land which was comprised in the above-mentioned tenants permissible area and which belonged to the Petitioner, cannot be declared surplus with him under the Punjab Land Reforms Act. However, in view of the two sets of instructions (Memo No. 6965-AR-5-76/38985 dated November 23, 1976 and D.O. No. AR-5-76/41143 dated December 13, 1976), issued by the State Government, the Collector did not go into this matter and did not treat the area in the occupancy of these tenants as their permissible area. He rather included this area in the holding of the Petitioner and determined his permissible area, taking into consideration all these areas. Consequently, he declared these areas, which were under the occupancy of the tenants to be the surplus area of the Petitioner.

(3.) The facts in the other four petitions are also similar and points canvassed are the same.