BALBIR SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Balbir Singh has filed this writ petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India for the issuance of a writ of certiorari quashing the orders of ejectment of the petitioner under section 7 of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 (hereinafter called 'the Act') and quashing sections 13 and 13-B of the Act as ultra vires.

(2.) A broad-brush factual drop will help illumine the pristinely legal issues raised in this writ petition.

(3.) The Gram Panchayat of the petitioner's village respondent No. 4 initiated proceedings for the ejectment of the petitioner from the land in dispute before the Collector on the allegations that he was in unauthorised occupation of the shamilat land. The petitioner contested these proceedings and inter alia pleaded that the land in question was not covered by the definition of shamilat deh. It fell within the purview of sub-section (g) of section 2 of the Act. The petitioner and his fore-fathers were in occupation thereof since times immemorial after the shamilat deh of the village had been partitioned. They were not paying any lease money for the use and occupation thereof and had been cultivating the Collector accepted the same and ordered the petitioner's ejectment. Dissatisfied, the petitioner went up in appeal before the Commissioner and the same was also dismissed. Still dissatisfied he has come up with this writ petition.