- (1.) THESE cases, which are five in number, reveal the typical land-grab resorted to by people occupying panchayat lands which were meant for the general benefit of the rural inhabitants of the village.
(2.) IN these five writ petitions, Nos. 2726, 2774, 3797, 3798 and 3799 of 1984, there is a common petitioner. Gram Panchayat of village Haripura, tehsil Fazilka, district Ferozepur. On the opposite side are arrayed three respondents, two being officials and the third contesting one claiming to be a tenant of the panchayat, resisting eviction under the provisions of the Punjab Public Premises and Land (Eviction and Rent Recovery) Act, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act' ). Since the facts giving rise to each of them are identical, we would take a broad conspectus of the things emerging from one of the cases.
(3.) THE land covered in all the five cases was 'shamlat Den' as the expression was known to the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1953 (hereinafter referred to as the 'shamlat Law' ). Such land by virtue of the Shamilat Law vested in the gram panchayal The owners of the shamilat land, however, adopted a device in writing a memorandum of association of Haripura Trust Committee, Haripura, and had it registered. It was mentioned therein that the General Committee shall consist of 21 members who are the owners of the shamilat which has been transferred to the Trust for the objects mentioned therein. In this way, as goes the statement of Gurdev Singh Patwari in the files of these cases which have been summoned by us, the land was mutated in the name of the Trust in the year 1954. Shortly thereafter, apparently under the same device, the contesting respondents herein were inducted as tenants by the Trust The Shamilat Law was substituted by a new enactment named as Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, and 'shamilat Den' was categorically defined under section 2 (g ). It was clarified that 'shamilat Deh' as defined in the latter Act of 1961 would have been the shamilat deh as under the Shamilat Law. Undoubtedly, the lands in question were recorded as Shamilat deh prior to their mutation in favour of the Trust and had to be continued as shamilat deh. Therefore, in the year 1957, a corrective mutation was entered and the land was remutated in favour of the Gram Panchayat. While the land stood mutated in the name of the Trust, the contesting respondents claim that their tenancy began under the Trust. In the year 1965-66, consolidation operations took place i arid the contesting respondents claim that they continued being recorded as tenants under the Gram Panchayat and that in the Jamabandi for the year 1970-71 each of them is recorded as a tenant on payment of fixed cash rent.;