Gopal Singh vs State of Punjab

K.S. Tiwana, J.—The petitioners who are resident of village Dineka, Tehsil Zira, District Ferozepur are admittedly, in unlawful possession of Gram Panchayat land. They were issued demand notices which are annexed as annexures P.1 to P.10 with the petition for payment of different amounts of money running into thousands of rupees by Block Development and Panchayat Officer Zira. The petitioners have challenged the demand notices on the ground that they were not lessees on the land and the Block Development and Panchayat Officer has no authority to issue them the notices. The petition was resisted on behalf of the State of Punjab.

The land belongs to the Gram Panchayat. It is admitted by the parties that it was not leased by the Panchayat or any other authority in its behalf in favour of the petitioner. Concededly, their possession on the land is unlawful. It was conceded by Shri G.S. Chawla that no decree for this amount has been obtained from any civil or revenue Court. The respondents want to recover money for the use and occupation from the petitioners. The respondents cannot determine the amounts themselves arbitrarily. They have to approach some Court or Tribunal for this purpose and cannot take arbitrary and one sided action.

When this is the position, the respondent cannot issue such demand notice to recover money for the use and occupation of land from the petitioners. It would have been appropriate for the respondents to approach any civil or revenue court for the relief which they want to enforce against them.

The demand notices issued by the respondent to the petitioners cannot be justified under any law and are, therefore, quashed and the petition is accepted with costs. The respondents are at liberty to recover amount from the petitioners in accordance with law. Costs of Rs. 300/.