BANWARI Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ACCORDING to the claim raised by the petitioner, he is a permanent resident of village Sirsi in Tehsil and District Karnal. The petitioner's family claims to have been in continuous cultivating possession of the land in dispute which is situated in village Bajida Jattan in Tehsil and District Karnal, since the time of their forefathers. Their possession is stated to have commenced prior to the year 1940.

(2.) THE Gram Panchayat, village Bajida Jattan, filed a petition against the petitioner under the provisions of the Public Premises and Land (Eviction and Rent Recovery) Act, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the Public Premises Act), for ejectment from the said land. In the ejectment petition, the Gram Panchayat claimed to be the owner of the land in dispute. It was also the claim of the Grain Panchayat, that the petitioner was in illegal and unauthorised occupation of the same.

(3.) IN so far as the instant controversy is concerned, it would be pertinent to mention that the matter came to be decided, in the first instance, by the Sub Divisional Officer (Civil)-cum-Collector, Karnal, vide an order dated 17.7.2006 (Annexure P-4), wherein he arrived at the conclusion, that the Gram Panchayat of village Bajida Jattan, was the owner of the land in dispute, and also, that the petitioner was in an unauthorized and illegal possession of the same. Accordingly, beside ordering the ejectment of the petitioner from the land in question, the petitioner was required to pay the Gram Panchayat of village Bajida Jattan, penalty at the rate of Rs. 10,000/- per acre per annum for having unauthorisedly and illegally occupied the land belonging to the Gram Panchayat.