Regular Second Appeal No.2956 of 2009 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Regular Second Appeal No.2956 of 2009 Date of Decision:-7.7.2011 Gurcharan Singh ...Appellant Versus Gram Panchayat of village Pajjo Ditta and another ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MEHINDER SINGH SULLAR Present:- Mr.P.K.Gupta, Advocate for the appellant. M ehinder S ingh S ullar , J . (Oral) The conspectus of the facts, which needs a necessary mention for the limited purpose of deciding the core controversy involved in the instant regular second appeal and emanating from the record, is that suit filed by Gurcharan Singh son of Darshan Singh appellant-plaintiff (for brevity “the plaintiff”) against the Gram Panchayat of village Pajjo Deota and Punjab Wakf Board respondent- defendants (for short “the defendants”) for declaration, to the effect that the ejectment order dated 24.4.1997, passed by the DDPO-cum-Collector, Hoshiarpur in respect of the land in dispute, under Section 7 of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 (hereinafter to be referred as “the Act”), is illegal, null and void, was dismissed by the trial Court, by virtue of impugned judgment and decree dated 27.3.2001. 2. Aggrieved by the judgment and decree of the trial Court, the plaintiff filed the appeal, which was dismissed as well, by the first appellate Court, by way of impugned judgment and decree dated 22.1.2009. 3. The plaintiff still did not feel satisfied with the impugned judgments and decrees of the Courts below and preferred the instant appeal. 4. After hearing the learned counsel for the appellant-plaintiff, going Regular Second Appeal No.2956 of 2009 -2- through the record with his valuable assistance and after considering the entire matter deeply, to my mind, there is no merit in the appeal in this context. 5. Ex facie, the argument of learned counsel that the impugned ejectment order passed by the Collector under Section 7 of the Act is illegal, null and void, is not only devoid of merit but misplaced as well. 6. As is evident from the record that the respondent-Gram Panchayat filed a petition under Section 7 of the Act, which was accepted by the Collector and the ejectment order dated 24.4.1997 was passed against the plaintiff. The appeal filed by him was also dismissed by the appellate authority on 2.7.1997. Once the ejectment order passed under section 7 of the Act had already attained the finality, then, to me, the jurisdiction of the civil Court to entertain such suit is barred under the Act. 7. Moreover, the trial court has rightly dismissed the suit of the plaintiff. The decision of the trial Court was upheld by the first appellate Court, by means of impugned judgment dated 22.1.2009, the operative part of which is (paras 15 and 17) as under:- “As stated above while referring to the definition of Shamlat deh, the property reserved for the benefit of village community within abadi deh is also Shamlat deh and vests in the Gram Panchayat. The impugned orders were passed against the appellant/plaintiff and in favour of Gram Panchayat. Photocopy of the order dated 24.4.1997 is Mark-D. No copy of the order passed by the Appellate Authority on 2.7.1997 has come on file. There was right of appeal/revision available to the present appellant/plaintiff against the order dated 2.7.1997. The order dated 24.4.1997 has merged into order dated 2.7.1997. Unless, the copy of the order dated 2.7.1997 is produced on file, this Court cannot describe the said order as illegal or void, without going through the said order. It has also come on record that respondent no.1 had taken possession of the disputed property in execution of the order dated 24.4.1997 and 2.7.1997. In these circumstances, the plaintiff was rightly held not entitled to the relief of declaration as well as injunction. In view of discussion made above, the findings of the learned trial Court on issues no.1 to 4 are upheld. Issues no.5 and 6 were decided against the defendants being not pressed. Once the petition under Section 7 of Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act was allowed and said order was upheld in appeal, the jurisdiction of Civil Court is barred under Section 13 of Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act. The issue no.5 is, therefore, decided against plaintiff.” Regular Second Appeal No.2956 of 2009 -3- 8. Meaning thereby, the Courts below have taken into consideration and appreciated the entire relevant evidence brought on record by the parties in the right perspective. Having scanned the admissible evidence in relation to the pleadings of the parties, the trial Court as well as the first Appellate Court has recorded the concurrent findings of fact that the jurisdiction of the civil Court to entertain such suit is barred under the Act. Such pure concurrent findings of fact based on the appraisal of evidence, cannot possibly be interfered with by this Court, while exercising the powers conferred under section 100 CPC, unless and until, the same are illegal and perverse. No such patent illegality or legal infirmity has been pointed out by the learned counsel for the appellant, so as to take a contrary view, than that of well reasoned decision already arrived at by the Courts below, in this regard. 9. In this manner, the entire matter revolves around the re-appreciation and re-appraisal of the evidence on record, which is not legally permissible and is beyond the scope of second appeal. Since no question of law, muchless substantial, is involved, so, no interference is warranted, in the impugned judgments/decrees of the Courts below, in view of the law laid down by Hon'ble Apex Court in case Kashmir Singh v. Harnam Singh & Anr. 2008 (2) R.C.R. (Civil) 688 : 2008 AIR (SC) 1749 in the obtaining circumstances of the present case. 10. No other legal point, worth consideration, has either been urged or pressed by the learned counsel for the appellant. 11. In the light of aforementioned reasons, as there is no merit, therefore, the instant appeal is hereby dismissed as such. (Mehinder Singh Sullar) 7.7.2011 Judge AS Whether to be referred to reporter?Yes/No