GRAM PANCHAYAT Vs. ADDL DIRECTOR CONSOLIDATION OF HOLDINGS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On the request of counsel for the parties, the writ petition is taken on board for final disposal.

(2.) Upon notice of the application, petitioner Gram Panchayat appeared before the Additional Director and filed reply and took various objections and prayed that application under Section 42 of the Act be dismissed on the grounds mentioned therein. Petitioner specifically pleaded that the consolidation of holdings was completed in the village about 38 years ago and the land was allotted in the name of Gram Panchayat and since then the Gram Panchayat is controlling and managing the land in question. Petitioner pleaded that the land falls under Section 2(g) of the Punjab Village Common lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 and as such the Gram Panchayat is owner in possession of the land. The Additional Director instead of dealing with the objections of the petitioner in regard to entertaining the application under Section 42 of the Act, allowed the application filled by the right-holders and vide impugned order, directed that the land be partitioned among the right-holders. Hence this writ petition.

(3.) The grievance made by the petitioner in this petition is that the Additional Director without averting to the objections raised by the petitioner to the prayer made by the right-holders has partitioned the land in an arbitrary manner. Counsel contended that the writ petition has now come to be covered by a decision of the Supreme Court of India in Gram Panchayat Kakran v. The Additional Director of Consolidation, J.T. 1997(8) S.C. 430. Reference has also been made to another judgment of the Supreme Court in Gram Panchayat, Nurpur v. State of Punjab, (1997-2) 116 P.L.R. 694 (S.C.) and the Division Bench judgments of this Court rendered in C.W.P. No. 16747 of 1996 titled Gram Panchayat Village Surajpur v. Director, Consolidation of Holdings, decided on 4.11.1997.