Dharampal vs The Financial Commissioner, Haryana and Others

Hemant Gupta, J.—The challenge in the present writ petition is to orders passed by the authorities under Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 (for short, ''the Act'') in proceedings u/s 7 of the Act. The Gram Panchayat alleged that the petitioner has encroached upon khasra No. 38/3 which is described in the revenue record as gairmumkin school. On such application, the petitioner submitted his reply Annexure P/16. The stand of the petitioner in the reply is that possession of the present petitioner is not illegal.

The learned Assistant Collector initially passed an order of ejectment on 29.5.2006. In appeal, such order was set aside on 31.8.2006 and the matter was remanded to the Assistant Collector to make spot inspection and decide the case on merits.

Assistant Collector 1st Grade in compliance of the remand order again gave an opportunity of hearing and leading evidence to the parties. The land in dispute was got demarcated through Local Commissioner. The petitioner was found to be an encroacher on the land of the school and order of eviction was passed on 29.5.2007. The petitioner filed an appeal against order of ejectment which was accepted vide order dated 6.9.2007 Annexure P/6 and the matter was again remanded to the Assistant Collector with a direction to get the area of gairmumkin school in khasra No. 38/3 demarcated in the presence of both the parties and decided the same on merits thereafter.

Thereafter, the Assistant Collector again directed the Naib Tehsildar to demarcate the land in question, who submitted his report dated 10.6.2009 Annexure P/7. The objections against the said report were filed. The petitioner also filed an application before Lokayukt, Haryana raising grievance against the revenue officials. Lokayukt, Haryana passed an order directing the Tehsildar Bawal to measure the area of gairmumkin school. Tehsildar Bawal demarcated the land and submitted his report dated 13.5.2011 Annexure P/8 to Lokayukt, Haryana. The petitioner was found to be an encroacher of khasra No. 38/3. The said report was made basis by the Assistant Collector 1st Grade to order eviction of the petitioner. An appeal against the said order has been dismissed by the Collector on 29.1.2013. Further revision has been dismissed by the Commissioner on 10.10.2013. Thereafter, the petitioner filed another revision petition before Financial Commissioner, Haryana which stands dismissed on 20.3.2014 as not maintainable.

Learned counsel for the petitioner has vehemently argued that in the some demarcation reports he has been found to be not in illegal possession of land comprising in Khasra No. 38/3. Therefore, a fresh demarcation be conducted to find out as to whether the petitioner has encroached upon any part of the land of the school.

We find that as much as four demarcation reports have been carried out. The Naib Tehsildar, Bawal has demarcated the land and submitted his demarcation report which was objected by the petitioner. At the instance of the petitioner, learned Lokayukt, Haryana passed an order of demarcation by the Tehsildar. Even in the demarcation report carried out by Tehsildar, the petitioner has been found to be an encroacher. The demarcation cannot be ordered to be conducted when responsible functionaries of the State Government have conducted demarcation number of times and found the petitioner to be in illegal possession of the public land.

In view thereof, we find no error in the orders passed by the authorities under the Act, which may warrant any interference by this Court.

Dismissed.