CHANDGI AND ANR. Vs. NIHAL SINGH AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order will dispose of two appeals, S.A.O. No. 7 of 1976 Chandgi and Anr. v. Nihal Singh and Ors. and S.A.O. No. 8 of 1976 Sardar Singh and Anr. v. Nihal Singh and Ors. involving similar points of fact and law.

(2.) THE Appellants in both the appeals filed two separate suits against the Respondents in each case alleging that in their village Dhanderi, Tehsil Hansi, district Hissar, there was a Chowk (vacant site) adjacent to their houses and it was utilised for common purposes of the village, like play -ground for the children and resting of animals. Respondents Nos. 1 to 4, who are the same in two appeals, wanted to encroach upon it in collusion with the Sarpanch of the village. They prayed that Respondents Nos. 1 to 4 be restrained from making any encroachment upon the Chowk.

(3.) RESPONDENTS Nos. 1 to 4 preferred two appeals on September 30, 1974, against the two decrees passed against them on April 21, 1973. The learned Senior Subordinate Judge, Hissar, in his consolidated order dated February 12, 1976, held under issue No. 6 that in view of the provisions contained in Section 13 of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, (hereinafter called the Act), the civil Court has no jurisdiction to try the suits as the question involved therein is whether the vacant site in dispute vests or does not vest in the Panchayat. The appeal was a continuation of the suits and was hit by Section 13 of the Act. The learned Senior Subordinate Judge consequently found that the point in issue could be adjudicated upon by the Assistant Collector 1st Grade having jurisdiction in the village where the property in dispute is situate. It was left to the Appellants to start fresh proceedings before him. The judgments and decrees under appeals were thus stamped without jurisdiction. The appeals were ordered to be disposed of in these terms which obviously mean that they were accepted, the judgments and decrees under appeal set aside and suits of the Plaintiffs -Appellants dismissed. It is against these two orders of the Senior Subordinate Judge that the present appeals are directed.