BHAG SINGH AND OTHERS Vs. THE STATE OF PUNJAB, THROUGH THE SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT, PUNJAB DEVELOPMENT AND PANCHAYAT DEPARTMENT, CHANDIGARH AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS judgment will dispose of five writ petitions Nos. 4295 of 1979, and 315, 316, 306 and 307 of 1980. Since common questions of fact as also of law are involved in all these cases, it is agreed between the parties that all these writ petitions should be decided by one and the same judgment.

(2.) BRIEFLY narrating the factual position from Civil Writ Petition No. 4295 of 1979, the Petitioners claim to be the owners of certain land situated in the revenue estate of village Ganeshpur, Tehsil and District Patiala. According to their allegations, they have been in possession of the suit land for the last more than fifteen years. On 26th February, 1976, apprehending threat to their peaceful enjoyment of the land and interference in their possession, the Petitioners filed a suit in the Court of Subordinate Judge Ist Class, Patiala, against the Gram Panchayat and Gram Sabha of village Ganeshpur. It was a suit for declaration in which prayer for permanent injunction for restraining the Defendants from interfering in their possession of the land in dispute was also made. The Gram Panchayat contested the suit by taking the stand that the Plaintiffs were not the owners of the land in dispute and were not entitled to the relief prayed for. However, the learned Subordinate Judge Ist Class, Patiala, after considering the long continuous possession of the Plaintiffs and an earlier judgment of the Civil Court, decreed the suit of the Plaintiffs (including the present Petitioners) for declaration that they had become the owners in possession of the land in dispute and also granted permanent injunction restraining the Defendant Gram Panchayat from interfering in their possession of the land in dispute. The date of the said judgment ( Annexure P -1) and of the decree (Annexure P -2) of the learned Subordinate Judge is 17th April, 1976, which would be relevant and of significance for the purposes of decision of the present writ petition.

(3.) AFTER the amending Act came into force it appears that it was for the first time on 12th September, 1979, that an application (Annexure P -3) was submitted by the Gram Panchayat, Ganeshpur, Tehsil and District Patiala, to the Collector, Patiala, for putting the Panchayat in possession of the land in dispute which, according to the Panchayat, came to be vested in it. It was inter alia prayed in the application that the present Petitioners, Bhag Singh and others, who were unauthorised occupants of the land in dispute should be dispossessed and be ordered to pay to the Panchayat lease money at the prevailing rates for the years they have been cultivating the land. It was on receipt of this application that the impugned notice dated 7th November, 1979 (Annexure P -4), was issued by the Collector, Patiala, to two of the Petitioners. Through the impugned notice, the Petitioners were required to present themselves in the Court of the Collector, Patiala, on 17th November, 1979, and to explain as to why they should not be ejected from the land in dispute. It is against this notice that the Petitioners have approached this Court on 26th November, 1979, by way of this writ petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India.