P C WADHWA Vs. TEHSILDAR, BAHADURGAR AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As per the averments made in this petition, respondents Nos. 2 to 5, who were once tenants on the land in question were ejected therefrom on September 21, 1969 in execution of an order passed against them under section 9 of the Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act and the factum of this dispossession of theirs was fully recorded by the revenue staff in Rapat Roznamcha No. 34 dated September 21, 1969. Thereafter the petitioner leased this land in favour of his wife Smt. Nirmal Wadhwa and she is in cultivating possession of the same through her servants and employees. On November 25, 1974, respondents Nos 2 to 5 made an application before the Assistant Collector Second Grade (Tehsildar) Bahadurgarh praying therein that the Khasra Girdawari entries since September 21, 1969 upto date be corrected and they be shown in cultivating possession of the land in question. The Assistant Collector in spite of an objectioin raised by the petitioner to the effect that neither the said respondents were in possession of the property subsequent to September 21, 1969 nor had he any jurisdiction to go into the matter at the instance of the person who had admittedly been dispossessed through the process of court, declined to dispose of those objections without passing any order and chose to continue the proceedings. The petitioner now impugns this action of the Assistant Collector 2nd Grade. It deserves to be noticed here that no contest has been raised on behalf of the respondents by filing any written statement to the petition.

(2.) In the light of the above factual position I have essentially to accept the allegations made by the petitioner in his petition for purposes of this order. Thus, I hold that since respondents Nos 2 to 5 have already been dispossessed from the land in question with effect from September 21, 1969 through process of law, they have obviously no interest or claim to the possession of the land in question and on that account the Assistant Collector 2nd Grade has no jurisdiction in the matter to go into the correctness of the Khasra Girdawari entries at their instance. In such a situation these respondents have obviously no locus standi to challenge the correctness of the entries made in the Khasra Girdawari Register.

(3.) For the reasons recorded above, I allow this petition and quash the proceedings said to be pending before the Assistant Collector 2nd Grade with no order as to costs.