DAYAL SINGH Vs. SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are invoking the writ jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for issuance of a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to finalise the transfer of the land in dispute in their favour on the ground that they had been holding the said land since the year 1948-49 and that they are entitled to have the land transferred in their favour by virtue of the policy of the Government enunciated from time to time.

(2.) ACCORDING to the petitioners, the land in dispute was evacuee property and thus vested in the Central Government and that the Central Government transferred the land to the State of Punjab and the State of Punjab issued instructions in Memorandum No. 7841-JN(LV)-61/2699 dated August 29, 1961, for the disposal of the said land by way of allotment. In pursuance of the said policy decision, the petitioners have been allotted the land which had already been in their possession by the Tehsildar, Ferozepur, in September, 1964, and the allotment orders have been issued. Subsequently, the State Government changed the policy and in accordance with the said policy, the evacuee land which stood transferred to the State of Punjab had to be allotted to persons belonging to Scheduled Castes, Rai Sikhs, landless agriculturists and agricultural workers upto a limit of ten ordinary acres. On the ground that the petitioners do not belong to Scheduled Castes, Rai Sikhs or ex-servicemen, the respondents were trying to dispossess the petitioners from the land and allot the same to others without finalising the transfer of the lands in favour of the petitioners. Therefore, the petitioners have approached this Court seeking a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to transfer the land in their favour in pursuance of the policy of the State Government.

(3.) IT is not controverted in the writ petition that the petitioners have been in possession of the land since 1948-49. It is also not disputed that the petitioners made the land cultivable and brought it into cultivation. It is not the case of the respondents that the petitioners are not landless agriculturists. There is also no dispute of the fact that the land had been allotted to the petitioners because of their occupation/possession in the year 1964 by the Tehsildar, Ferozepur. It is also not in dispute that the Tehsildar, Ferozepur, issued the allotment orders in favour of the petitioners on the basis of the orders passed by a committee constituted for the purpose of allotment of land by the Government in its Memorandum No. 3355-JN(IV)- 62/2330 dated May 11, 1962. When the respondents did not take steps for conveying the property in favour of the petitioners, they approached this Court seeking the relief as stated above.