CWP No.3826 of 1985 1 IN THE PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 3826 of 1985 (O&M) Date of Decision: 29.03.2011 Rajender and another ...Petitioners Versus The Collector and others ..Respondents CORAM: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal Present: Mr. M.L.Sharma, Advocate for the petitioners. Mr. Anjum Ahmed, Additional Advocate General, Haryana. Ms. Neha Mann, Advocate for Mr. Salil Bali, Advocate for respondent No.4. ..... RAJESH BINDAL, J. This order will dispose of two writ petitions bearing No.3826 and 3828 of 1985, as the common question of facts and law involved. The facts have been extracted from CWP No.3826 of 1985. Challenge in the present writ petition is to the order dated 8.10.1984 Annexure P-1 passed by the Assistant Collector First Grade, Panipat (for short “the Assistant Collector”) and order dated 11.7.1985 Annexure P-2 passed by the Collector, Karnal. Briefly the facts of the case are that one Hukmi–respondent No.3 filed an application under Section 7 (2) of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulations) Act, 1961 (for short “the Act”), claiming that the petitioners, namely, Ram Chander son of Jai Singh and Rajender son of Ram Singh (respondents before the Assistant Collector), are illegally occupying the land belonging to Gram Panchayat. The Assistant Collector finding merit in the application accepted the same while rejecting the claim of ownership made by the respondents before the Assistant Collector, directed for their eviction. Ram Chander and Rajender, who were respondents before the Assistant Collector did not challenge the order passed by the Assistant Collector rather Hukmi, who was applicant there, filed appeal before the Collector wherein upholding the order passed by the Assistant Collector, a CWP No.3826 of 1985 2 further direction was given that in addition to eviction of the respondents before the Assistant Collector, they will also pay penalty of ` 600/- per hectare per year for the period, the land remained in their possession. It is the aforesaid orders, which have been impugned by the present petitioners, namely, Ram Chander and Rajender before this court in the present writ petition. Learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the issue regarding ownership has not been specifically gone into by the Assistant Collector in the application filed by Hukmi-respondent No.3 under Section 7 (2) of the Act. He further submitted that even if there are certain observations against the petitioners in the orders passed by the Assistant Collector and Collector those were totally irrelevant, considering the fact that the application under Section 7 (2) of the Act was never converted into a petition under under Section 13 (a) of the Act. On the other hand, learned counsel for the State submitted that application was filed by respondent No.3 before the Assistant Collector against the petitioners. It was decided against them. They never felt aggrieved against the order passed by the Assistant Collector, directing their eviction as no appeal was filed. It was only Hukmi, who filed appeal claiming that the petitioners herein should be directed to pay compensation for illegal occupation of the land. It is in the appeal filed by Hukmi that further direction was given by the Collector to the petitioners herein to pay penalty of ` 600/- per hectare per year for the period they remained in the possession. Hence, the petition filed by the petitioners challenging the aforesaid orders is not maintainable. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the paperbook. What is not in dispute in the present case is that application under Section 7 (2) of the Act, filed by Hukmi against the present petitioners, the Assistant Collector in his order dated 8.10.1984 opined that respondents-present petitioners have failed to establish their claim that the land in dispute is in the ownership of the three panas. In fact, in the revenue record produced by the respondents showed the ownership of the Panchayat Deh and entry was never challenged by the present petitioners. Finally, Assistant Collector ordered for the eviction of the present petitioners from the land in dispute directing them to give the possession of the land to the CWP No.3826 of 1985 3 Gram Panchayat. Petitioners herein, who were the respondents before the Assistant Collector did not challenge the aforesaid order wherein finding was recorded that they were in illegal possession of the land belonging to the Gram Panchayat. The appeal was preferred only by Hukmi, who was the applicant before the Assistant Collector, claiming that the present petitioners should also be directed to pay penalty for the period, they remained in illegal possession of the land. It is in that appeal that the Collector directed for payment of the penalty @ ` 600/- per hectare per year for the period, they remained in possession of the land in dispute. Once the present petitioners were not aggrieved against the order of the Assistant Collector holding them to be in unauthorized possession of the land in dispute, they had no locus standi to file the present petition challenging the finding that the order passed by the Assistant Collector holding that they were in the unauthorized possession of the land in dispute. The only issue remains regarding the direction issued by the Collector for payment of penalty for the period the present petitioners remained in unauthorized occupation of the land in dispute. It is a matter of fact, which is evident from the perusal of the order passed by the Collector that the present petitioners, who were respondents before the Collector, were heard by the Collector while passing the order regarding penalty. Once the petitioners were not aggrieved against the order passed by the Assistant Collector holding them to be in illegal possession of the land in dispute, no illegality can be found in the order of passed by the Collector directing them to pay penalty for the period they remained in unauthorized occupation of the land. For the reasons mentioned above, the present writ petitions are dismissed. (RAJESH BINDAL) JUDGE 29.03.2011 sharmila