IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 3053 of 2009 Date of Decision:12.10.2009 Naranjan Singh ..Petitioner Versus Director Rural Development & Panchayat, Punjab & others ..Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE T.S.THAKUR,CHIEF JUSTICE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MAHESH GROVER 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. Sukhmeet Singh, Advocate for the petitioner Mr. Rupinder Khosla, Addl. A.G. Punjab for respondents No.1 to 3. Mr. Nakul Sharma, Advocate for respondent No. 4 Mr. Rajbir Singh, Advocate for respondents No. 7, 9 and 10. ***** T.S.Thakur, C.J. (Oral) This petition has been filed in public interest. It prays for a mandamus directing respondents No.1 to 4 to remove the illegal possession of respondents No. 5 to 11 from a parcel of land measuring 3 Kanals 10 Marlas forming part of a pond in village Handa, Tehsil Moonak, District Sangrur. The petitioner's case as set out in the petition is that the land in question is vested in Gram Panchayat, Handa and has been illegally occupied by some of the villagers for construction of their CWP No. 3053 of 2009 [2] houses. An application under Section 7 of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 for removal of unauthorised occupation filed by the Gram Panchayat was allowed by an order dated 16.02.2005 passed by the District Development & Panchayat Officer, Sangrur. Despite the said order, since the authorities did not take any follow up action for removal of the unauthorised occupation and demolition of the structure raised over the same, the petitioner filed a representation before the Director, Rural Development and Panchayats, Punjab, for implementation of order passed by District Development & Panchayat Officer under Section 7 of the Act earlier mentioned. That application did not evoke any response forcing the petitioner to file Civil Writ Petition No. 17466 of 2008 in this Court which was eventually disposed of by us by an order dated 01.10.2008 with a direction to the Director, Rural Development and Panchayats, Punjab to dispose of the representation by passing a speaking order. In compliance with the above direction, the Director, Rural Development & Panchayats, Punjab, has passed a speaking order dated 23.12.2008 directing immediate implementation of the eviction order dated 16.2.2005 passed by the District Development & Panchayat Officer, Sangrur. In the meantime, unauthorised occupants appear to have represented to the State Government for permission to exchange the land in their occupation with some other land owned by the occupants. That request was also declined after consideration by the State Government in terms of an order dated 20.5.2009. Not only that, the order passed by the District Development & Panchayat Officer, Sangrur under Section 7 of the Act was also assailed by the occupants in an appeal before the Commissioner who dismissed the said appeal on 12.08.2009. This implies that challenge to the eviction order as also the prayer for exchange of the land have been finally declined by the competent authorities. It is a common ground that no further challenge against the said orders has been mounted by respondents No. 5 to 10 either in this Court or before any other forum. The orders in question have therefore attained finality and shall have to be implemented. CWP No. 3053 of 2009 [3] Mr. Khosla appearing for respondents No.1 to 3 submits on instructions of respondent No.3 who is also present in person that one of the unauthorised occupant has already demolished the house constructed by him while the others are in process of doing so. Mr.Khosla further submits that keeping in view the orders passed by the District Development and Panchayat Officer and the Director, Rural Development & Panchayats, Punjab unauthorised occupation of the persons shall be removed and the possession of the land in question restored to the Gram Pancyayat. Learned counsel appearing for respondents No. 7, 9 and 10 today submits that he has no instructions in the matter. The remaining respondents have also not appeared to contest the petition. In the circumstances and in the light of the facts stated in the earlier part of this order, we see no impediment in issuing a direction to respondents No.1 to 3 to effectively implement the orders regarding eviction of unauthorized occupants from the land in question expeditiously but not later than three months from today. With the above observation, this writ petition is disposed of. No costs. (T.S.THAKUR) CHIEF JUSTICE (MAHESH GROVER) JUDGE 12.10.2009 'ravinder'