- (1.) This judgment will dispose of Civil Writ Petition Nos. 1938, 1939, 1940 and 1941 of 1967, as common questions of law and facts are involved in them.
(2.) To appreciate the controversy between the parties, the facts in Civil Writ Petition No. 1938 of 1967 are given in brief : Avtar Singh, petitioner, is a displaced person from Pakistan; that on migration to India, in lieu of the land left by him in Pakistan, he was allotted land, measuring 28 standard acres in villages Hansi and Moth in the year1950; that the evacuees (Muslims) had only occupancy rights in the said area and the petitioner was, therefore, allottee of occupancy rights only in the land; that in the year 1955, the Central Government acquired the land under Section 12 of the Displaced Persons (Compensation and Rehabilitation) Act (Act No. 44 of 1954) and the occupancy rights of the evacuees also became the property of the Central Government. On 10th February, 1958, the Central Government transferred the permanent rights to Avtar Singh petitioner and granted sanad in his favour regarding occupancy rights in the said land. The State of Punjab enacted the Punjab Occupancy Tenants (Vesting of Proprietary Rights) Act, 1953 (hereinafter called the Act). By operation of law, the full proprietary rights vested in the petitioner and a letter evidencing this facts was issued to the petitioner on 15th July, 1958. The petitioner paid the compensation to the original owners as assessed by the Revenue Authorities in accordance with the provisions of the Act. In the year 1965, the Collector, Hissar initiated proceedings for the determination of the surplus area of the petitioner on the plea that after the enforcement of the Act, the area of 28 standard acres was raised to 67 standard acres. Taking the land of the petitioner to be 67 standard acres, the Collector declared 36.67 standard acres of land in village Moth as surplus area of the petitioner, vide the order, dated 21st June, 1966. The appeal filed by the petitioner was dismissed by the Commissioner on 29th March, 1967. The revision filed by the petitioner was dismissed by the Financial Commissioner on 8th June, 1967.
(3.) The cases of other writ petitioners in the remaining writ petitions are also similar. They as displaced persons have also been allotted lands which were less than 30 standard acres in each case. These petitioners were conferred proprietary rights in pursuance of the provisions of the Act and the Revenue Authorities taking into account the value of the lands at the time of determination of the surplus area, declared certain area of land as surplus with the petitioners. Dissatisfied with the orders of the authorities, the petitioners have filed these petitions.;