HON LT SEWA SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Civil Writ Petition has been filed under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India by a landowner of village Kotala in Tehsil Samrala of District Ludhiana against the orders of the Revenue Officers of the State of Punjab, respondent Nos. 1 to 5 whereby 20 standard acres and 3-1/4 units of petitioner's land have been declared as surplus area under the provisions of the Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act, 1953 (hereinafter briefly referred to as "the Act"). Respondent Nos. 6 and 7 have been resettled on this surplus area as eligible tenants and have, therefore, been impleaded as proper parties.

(2.) The petitioner is a retired military officer who served the Indian Army from the years 1904 to 1932. In recognition of his distinguished services during the Second World War which lasted from the years 1914 to 1919, he was granted two squares of land situated in Montgomery District in the year 1920. After the partition of the country into the dominions of India and Pakistan in 1947, he migrated to this side of the Indo-Pakistan border. He was allotted 59 square acres and 12 units of land in samrala tehsil but during the consolidation proceedings, the area of his holding increased to 70 standard acres and 3-1/4 units. As a displaced person, the petitioner was allowed to keep 50 standard acres as his permissible area with the result that 20 standard acres and 3-1/4 units of his land were declared as surplus area by the Collector, Ludhiana vide order dated 2.11.1959 (Annexure 'G' to the petition). The order does not say that the petitioner had claimed any exemption under Section 19-D of the Act and it is recorded instead that the landowner had voluntarily offered to surrender 20 standard acres and 3-1/4 units of his land as surplus area. Section 19-D provides "that the provisions of the Act shall not apply to lands granted to any member of the Armed Forces of the Union of India for gallantry". The interpretation of this section may appear to have offered difficulty to litigants, lawyers and Courts as the language used may appear to keep out of the purview of the section any members of the Armed Forces who had not been serving the Union of India. In Gian Singh and others V. The State of Punjab and others,1966 PunLJ 105, this section was interpreted by a Hon'ble Judge of this Court as follows :-

(3.) It may, however, appear that the above ruling was not a correct reading of the intentions of the Legislature and that it was found necessary to promulgate Ordinance No. 9 of 1967 Whereby Section 19-DD was inserted in the Act. This Ordinance was replaced by the Punjab Security of Land Tenures (Amendment) Act, 1968 (Punjab Act No. 12 of 1968). Section 19-DD as inserted by the Ordinance and then by the Act was to the following effect :-