MAM CHAND Vs. GRAM PANCHAYAT KHERI MATARWA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners, who are residents of village Kheri Matarwa, Tehsil Kaithal, District Kurukshetra have filed this petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India for issuance of a writ of certiorari for quashing order dated 2.5.1984 passed by the Assistant Collector Ist Grade, Kaithal (Annexure P-3) and order dated 15.6.1984 passed by the Collector, Kurukshetra (Annexure P-5) directing ejectment of the petitioners from the land in question.

(2.) GRAM Panchayat Kheri Matarwa filed an application under Section 7(1) of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulations) Act, 1961 (for short the Act) for ejectment of the applications from land measuring 1 Kanal, bearing Khewat No. 64, Khatauni No. 143 Min., which is a gair-mumkin Rasta No. 132, situated in the village Kheri Matarwa, Tehsil Kaithal, on the ground that their possession over the said land was unauthorised. The petitioners contested the application. It was pleaded that the Gram Panchayat was not the owner of the land and in fact, the petitioners were the owners in possession and they had constructed permanent structure on the land for the last more than 30 years. The Assistant Collector vide order Annexure P-3 decided the case against the petitioners holding that they are not the owners of the land as claimed by them and ordered the ejectment of the petitioners. The petitioners aggrieved against order Annexure P-3 preferred appeal before Collector who also dismissed the same vide order Annexure P-5. The aforesaid two orders i.e. Annexures P-3 and P-5 are under challenge in this writ petition.

(3.) THE counsel for respondent No. 1 argued that the orders passed by the Assistant Collector and the Collector were legal. It was stated that the order of ejectment was rightly passed on the basis of evidence and revenue record. The petitioners have not been able to prima facie establish that they were owners in any manner and, therefore, their ejectment has been directly ordered under Section 7 of the Act. The authorities were not required to convert themselves into a Tribunal under Section 13-A of the Act. The reliance has been placed on Chander Prakash and another v. Gram Panchayat, Ranwar and another, 1989(1) RRR 348 (P&H) : 1989 PLJ 21 and Ratti Ram and another v. State of Haryana and others, 1997(3) RCR(Civil) 192 (P&H) : 1997(1) PLJ 499.