BACHNA Vs. STATE OF HARYANA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The seven petitioners (in Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 1267 to 1273 of 1979) impugn the orders of their ejectment from the suit land purported to have been passed under section 7 of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, as applicable in Haryana, by the Collector, Kurukshetra and Assistant Collector, Kaithal, respondents Nos. 2 and 3 respectively. In view of the identity of facts and the contentions raised, these petitions are being disposed of through this common order.

(2.) The precise case pleaded by the respondent- Panchayat before the Assistant Collector, Kaithal, was that different parcels of Shamilat land were leased out to the petitioners for a period of five years in the year 1963 at the rate of Rs.10/- per acre (killa). The period of that lease having expired somewhere in the year 1968, the petitioners had no claim or right to remain in occupation of the land.

(3.) On the other hand the case of the petitioners was that even subsequent to the expiry of the above noted period of lease in their favour, they continued to be in possession of the land on the basis of yearly tenancy as tenants-at- will under the Panchayat. In support of their contention, they heavily relied on the finding recorded by the civil Court in a suit filed by them for permanent injunction restraining the Gram Panchayat from dispossession them unlawfully. One of material issues determined by the Civil Court in this litigation between the parties was as to "whether the plaintiffs are in possession of the suit land as lessees at the rate of Rs.10/- per acre under the defendant?" The Court concluded this issue after referring to the evidence on record in the following manner :-