DR. S.C. GUPTA Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Does the present Letters Patent Appeal stand barred by res judicata Herein lies the controversy raised at the very threshold of the hearing of this appeal.

(2.) Shri Guru Singh Sabha (Regd.) (hereinafter referred to as 'The Society') owns shops in Faridabad which are in possession of its tenants. It is said that there is a strip of land adjoining these shops which belongs to the Rehabilitation Department. A policy decision was taken by the Haryana Government as embodied in its order of February 28, 1984, annexure P/l, in terms of which it was decided that the adjacent land may be transferred to the occupants, at rates, mentioned therein. Both the Society and the tenants in occupation of shops applied for transfer of this adjacent land. The question then arose as to who would fall within the meaning of the expression "occupant" for the purposes of the policy for transfer of such land. The learned Single Judge held that it would be the owner of the land, that is, the Society and not the tenants, who were occupying the shops owned by it.

(3.) Some of the tenants occupying shops of the Society as tenants preferred P.L.A. 792 of 1991, which was dismissed in limine on July 23, 1991.