Gram Panchayat Village Bhadangi vs State of Haryana and Others

Ranjit Singh, J.—Petitioner is a Gram Panchayat Village Bhadangi and the private-respondent has unauthorisedly occupied the Phirni/Bachat

land within Lal dora and put bricks in the street. The Gram Panchayat issued notice u/s 24(2) of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 to

respondent No. 4 on 7.12.2010 and thereafter Block Development and Panchayat Officer, Nahar has sent a letter dated 12.1.2011 to the Sub

Divisional Officer (Civil) Kosli for providing police help to Gram Panchayat. Even Deputy Commissioner, Rewari sent a letter dated 17.02.2011

to the Superintendent of Police, Rewari to remove unauthorized possession from the Phirni of Gram Panchayat Bhadangi and thereafter the

petitioner again submitted a representation but no action has been taken. The petitioner, accordingly, has approached this Court through the

present writ petition. Written statement on behalf of respondents No. 1 to 3 is filed by the Block Development and Panchayat Officer, Nahar.

The facts as pleaded in the petition are not much in dispute. It is, however, stated that the encroachment could not be removed in the absence of

demarcation or any ejectment order from any competent Court as otherwise it is not possible to ascertain as to how much area has been

encroached. It is stated that the Gram Panchayat should have filed an application u/s 7 of the Punjab Village Common Land Act, 1961 (for short

''the Act'') for removal of aforesaid encroachment and in case any encroachment is found, the same shall be removed by following due course of

law.

I find the attitude of the State as escapist. If the Panchayat has approached the official respondent, like Deputy Commissioner, to remove

encroachment of Phirni, it was expected from the Deputy Commissioner or the SDO to take appropriate action. If any demarcation was needed,

same could have been got done through Tehsildar or other Revenue Officials and for that purpose there may not be a need to file an application u/s

7 of the Act.

The directions, therefore, are issued to the Deputy Commissioner to immediately detail Tehsildar of Tehsil concerned who would carry out

demarcation of the area and in case respondents are found to be in unauthorized occupation of Phirni, the same shall be got removed immediately.

This action shall be completed within a period of one month from today.

Copy of the order be supplied to State counsel for sending it to the Deputy Commissioner for compliance. The writ petition is, accordingly,

disposed of.