MEHAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Mehar Singh being aggrieved that he has not been accommodated in his first major portion by the Consolidation authorities, has made this petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution for annulment of the order passed by Kanwar Partap Singh, Additional Director, on 2nd of January, 1962, and subsequently affirmed in other proceedings.

(2.) The dispute between the petitioner on the one hand and Kartar Kaur respondent No. 2 and Karam Kaur respondent No. 3, on the other has been subsisting for a long time and it is in the forefront of the petitioner's case that he has been deprived of his right to be settled in his first major portion by the animosity which K. Partap Singh, Additional Director, entertained against him. Though the matter can be decided on a short point and I propose to do so, I will make a brief reference to the various stages through which the dispute has passed as a good deal of arguments addressed by Mr. Gandhi could be understood only in this perspective.

(3.) The consolidation proceedings in village Naura commenced in 1955-56 and as usual the scheme envisioned repartition on the basis of settlement of right holders so far as possible on their first major-portion areas. At first the petitioner had to meet heavy weather even in the calculation of the percentage of his first major portion and eventually it was settled by the Settlement Officer in appellate proceedings. It was found that the petitioner's percentage was 19.9 and that of Kartar Kaur the second respondent, 19.3 in fact it was this very closeness of the percentages of the petitioner and the second respondent that has given rise to bitter feelings. The petitioner, because of his higher percentage, was settled in his first major portion by the Settlement Officer in accordance with his order of 15th of June, 1956. The Additional Director K. Partap Singh, however, on the 28th November, 1958, reversed this order vide Annexure B. He observed that :-