Civil Writ Petition No.5852 of 2010 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.5852 of 2010 Date of Decision:14.11.2011 Karimpura Wholesale Cloth Merchants Association(Registered) ......Petitioner Versus State of Punjab and others .....Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MEHINDER SINGH SULLAR. Present: Mr.P.S.Khurana, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr.Rajpreet Singh Sidhu, Assistant Advocate General, Punjab, for respondent Nos.1 and 2. Mr.R.S.Bajaj, Advocate, for respondent No.3. Mr.G.S.Ghuman, Advocate, for respondent No.4. **** M EHINDER S INGH S ULLAR , J.(oral) The challenge in this writ petition filed by the petitioner under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, is to the impugned action of demolishing the steps providing passage to the shopkeepers of Karimpura Bazaar by the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana(respondent No.3). To begin with, respondent No.3 contested the claim of the petitioner and filed its written statement. At the very outset, learned counsel for the parties are ad idem that the controversy, involved in the present writ petition is squarely covered and is liable to be disposed of in the same terms of the order dated 03.02.2011, passed in Civil Writ Petition No.9829 of 2010 titled as Surender Singh Versus State of Punjab and another and a Division Bench order dated 20.04.2011 of this Court, rendered in Civil Writ Petition No.613 of 2010 titled as Ghass Mandi Shop Keeper Association(Regd.) and others Versus State of Punjab and others, the Civil Writ Petition No.5852 of 2010 2 operative part of which is, as under:- “Though, the respondents in the written statement filed have denied that no notices had been issued to the petitioners, an additional reply on behalf of the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana has been filed in Court today. In the said additional reply it has been stated that, as on date, there are 19 persons who according to the Corporation are in unauthorized occupation and the Corporation is ready and willing to issue notices to the said persons so as to give them a full opportunity to explain their stand. Learned counsel for the respondents, therefore, has submitted that the writ petition be disposed of by permitting the Corporation to pursue the matter in the aforesaid manner. Learned counsel for the petitioners is not averse to the suggestions made by the learned counsel for the respondent-Corporation. That apart, we have derived into the merits of the matter and it is our considered view that, having regard to the issues involved, this writ petition ought to be disposed of in terms of the stand taken by the Municipal Corporation in the additional reply filed today in the Court. We, therefore, disposed of the writ petition by permitting the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana to issue notices to all such persons who, according to the Corporation, are encroachers or unauthorized occupants. Thereafter, all such persons will be given a full opportunity to present their respective cases before the competent authority of the Corporation who will then decide the matter on the basis of a reasoned order. In the event the petitioners or any of them continue to feel aggrieved by such orders as may be passed by the Municipal Corporation, it will, naturally, be open for them to avail of such remedies as may be available to them in law. Until the matter is decided by the Municipal Corporation in terms of the present directions, no coercive action will be taken against the petitioners.” In this view of the conceded position of the matter on record, the instant writ petition is hereby disposed of in the same terms of the order dated 20.04.2011 of this Court in Ghass Mandi Shop Keeper Association(Regd.) and others' case(supra). November 14, 2011 (MEHINDER SINGH SULLAR) seema JUDGE Civil Writ Petition No.5852 of 2010 3