OM PARKASH @ OMA Vs. COLLECTOR, SONEPAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution prays for quashing orders dated 1.8.1984, Annexure P-1 passed by the Assistant Collector Ist Grade, Gohana and the Appellate Authority dated 1.6.1986, Annexure P-2 passed by the Collector, Sonepat.

(2.) THE case of the petitioner is that respondent No. 3 filed an application under Section 7 of the Punjab Village Common Lands Act, 1961 seeking ejectment of the petitioner from Khasra Nos. 259 and 264 alleging that the petitioner has encroached upon the land of the Gram Panchayat. The application was allowed by the Assistant Collector Ist Grade by holding that the petitioner has illegally occupied the Panchayat land which is owned by it. An order of eviction of the petitioner from the disputed land was passed. It was further ordered that the petitioner was to pay penalty at the rate of Rs. 600/- per hectare per year for three years totalling Rs. 1404/- for taking benefit from illegal possession of the land in dispute and the same was to be recovered from him as arrears of land revenue. The appeal filed by the petitioner before the Collector also failed and the plea that his crusher and room on the land is in the fields of Jogis was rejected by holding as under :-

(3.) MR . Bhoop Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner has argued that in the absence of findings recorded by the authorities below, ejectment of the petitioner from Khasra Nos. 259 and 264 could not be ordered and his application for demarcation of the land was illegally dismissed. According to the learned counsel, it was for the Gram Panchayat to get the aforementioned Khasra numbers demarcated and find out whether the petitioner has been illegally occupying the land belonging to the Gram Panchayat. In the absence of any such finding, the orders passed by the Assistant Collector as well as the Collector are liable to be dismissed.