BADAMO Vs. STATE OF HARYANA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Smt. Badamo has, through this writ petition, challenged the order dated July 5, 1976 of the Assistant Collector 1st Grade, Fatehabad (Annexure P. 1 appended to the petition) ordering her ejectment from the land in dispute and the order dated January 9, 1978 of the Collector (Annexure P. 2 appended to the petition) dismissing her appeal.

(2.) Briefly stated, the facts of the case are that Gram Panchayat Kalikravan (respondent No. 5) filed an application under section 7(2) of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 (for short 'the Act') before the Assistant Collector 1st Grade, Fatehabad, for the ejectment of the petitioner from 19 Kanals and 12 Marlas of land situate in village Kaliravan on the ground that the petitioner Smt. Badamo was in unauthorised occupation of that land. The petitioner appeared before the Assistant Collector and filed a written statement challenging inter alia the title of the Gram Panchayat and her liability to be ejected, on the ground that the land in dispute was not shamlat deh and the same was being cultivated by her father long before January 26, 1950 without paying land revenue and that after the death of her father she had been cultivating this land as such. The learned Assistant Collector summarily tried this application and rejected the contentions raised by the petitioner and accepted the application of the Gram Panchayat and ordered the petitioner's ejectment vide order July 5, 1976 (Annexure P. 1). The appeal filed by the petitioner against this order was dismissed by the Collector on January 9, 1978 (Annexure P. 2).

(3.) It is apparent from the two orders that the learned Assistant Collector 1st Grade tried the ejectment application in accordance with the provisions of section 7 of the Act. The Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act was amended by Haryana Act No. 2 of 1981 and the following proviso to sub-section (1) of section 7 of the principal Act was added:-