CWP No. 17259 of 2007 [1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 17259 of 2007 Date of Decision: 04.12.2008 Gram Panchayat of village Bhamipura Kalan and others ..Petitioners versus State of Punjab and others ..Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE T.S.THAKUR,CHIEF JUSTICE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JASBIR SINGH 1.Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment ? 2. Whether to be referred to the Reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Present : Mr. Gurnam Singh, Advocate for the petitioners Mr. Amol Rattan Singh, Addl. A.G. Punjab for respondents No.1 to 5 Mr. K.K.Goyal, Advocate for respondent No.6 Mr. Chand Singh, Advocate for respondent No.7 Mr. Sanjiv Sharma, Advocate for respondents No. 8 to 10 Ms. Amarjit Khurana, Advocate for respondent No.11 Mr. Hari Om Verma, Advocate for respondents No. 16 and 17 CWP No. 17259 of 2007 [2] T.S.Thakur, C.J. (Oral) This petition has been filed in public interest. It prays for a mandamus restraining the respondents including the Punjab Mandi Board from digging/constructing/operating a Nala through Gram Panchayat property situate in village Bhamipura-Kalan, District Ludhiana without first acquiring the said land. A mandamus directing the Punjab Pollution Control Board as also the Punjab Irrigation & Drainage Department to take legal action against Punjab Mandi Board and Gram Panchayat of village Dalla, has also been prayed for. The petitioners case as set out in the writ petition is that the Punjab Mandi Board has undertaken construction of a drain in village Bhamipura Kalan over a piece of land which is owned by petitioner No.1 Gram Panchayat without acquiring the said land and without the prior consent of the Panchayat. The petitioners further allege that discharge of filthy water of village Dalla through the proposed drain is likely to cause difficulties for the residents of village Bhamipura Kalan apart from being a health hazard for them. Since the authorities were insensitive to all these problems, the petitioners are left with no option but to file the present petition in public interest. When the petition came up before us on 27.11.2008, our attention was drawn by learned counsel for the respondents to a resolution passed by the newly elected Panchayat on 10.11.2008, according to which the Gram Panchayat had reconsidered the issue regarding the construction of the drain in question and resolved that the Panchayat would not oppose the said construction. The relevant portion of the resolution reads as under:- CWP No. 17259 of 2007 [3] “ It was presented that the Mandi Board, Jagraon has carved out a drain in village Bhamipura for carrying water of village Dhalla to the same Nalla on the road going from Dhalla to Deharka. This is ownership of Panchayat of village Bhamipura and is Gair Mumkin Rasta on which road has been constructed and its Khasra Number is 183. On 9.10.2007 Gram Panchayat, Bhamipura had passed a resolution against this drain for water. The Panchayat now feels that this drain is working at present which is not causing any injury to the residents of village Bhamipura, therefore, after considering the matter the Panchayat passes that Gram Panchayat, Bhamipura has no objection to the construction of this drain because this drain has been constructed in the area of the road. If the previous Panchayat has filed any case then the present Panchayat does not wish to take any further action in the said case. This was approved unanimously by all the present Panchayat Members.” We had accordingly directed the learned counsel for the petitioners to keep the Sarpanch of Gram Panchayat, Bhamipura Kalan present in the Court as Shri Pritam Singh through whom this petition was filed had ceased to hold office as Sarpanch. The newly elected Sarpanch of petitioners Panchayat, however, is not present. This implies that the newly elected Panchayat stands by the resolution passed by it and does not oppose the construction of the drain in question. It is evident that since new elections of the panchayat have taken place, there is a shift in the approach to be adopted qua the construction of the drain. Although, the Panchayat earlier Incharge of the affairs found the construction of the drain to be unacceptable, the newly elected Panchayat does not think so. The resolution CWP No. 17259 of 2007 [4] extracted above, clearly suggests that the Panchayat does not find the flow of the water through the drain in question to be a cause for worry or nuisance for the inhabitants of village Bhamipura Kalan. Learned counsel for the petitioners, however, argued that even when the newly elected Panchayat may not be interested in pursuing the challenge to the construction of the drain in the present proceedings, the same did not prevent petitioners No. 2 to 9, who belong to village Bhamipura Kalan and petitioners No. 10 to 13, who belong to adjacent village Dalla, from maintaining the present writ petition. He urged that Punjab Pollution Control Board too had found that the construction and running of the water through the drain would cause difficulties for the residents of two villages. It is true that petitioners No.2 to 9 belong to village Bhamipura Kalan while the remaining petitioners are residents of adjacent village, through which also a part of the drain in question passes, but the objection to the construction of the drain was primarily based on the premise that the land utilised for the said construction is owned by the Gram Panchayat. If the Gram Panchayat which owns the land finds no fault with the construction, the remaining petitioners who do not claim any title to the land in their own right cannot do so. This would not, however, prevent the residents of the two villages including petitioners No.2 to 13 from seeking appropriate redress in appropriate proceedings in case the running of water in the drain is found to be a source of any nuisance to them or causes any health hazardous. The dismissal of this writ petition to that extent would not stand in the way of the said petitioners to seek appropriate relief in CWP No. 17259 of 2007 [5] appropriate proceedings. With the above observations, this writ petition is dismissed leaving the parties to bear their own costs. (T.S.THAKUR) CHIEF JUSTICE (JASBIR SINGH) JUDGE 04.12.2008 'ravinder'