C.W.P No.1977 of 2011 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH C.W.P No.1977 of 2011 Date of Decision 02.02.2011 Ishwar Singh and others Petitioners versus State of Haryana and others Respondents CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PERMOD KOHLI Present: Mr N.R.Dahiya, Advocate for the petitioner. *** PERMOD KOHLI, J. (ORAL) Notice of motion. Mr. Amandeep Singh, Assistant Advocate General,Haryana, has been asked to accept notice on behalf of the respondents. Keeping in view the nature of relief claimed and with the consent of learned counsel for the parties, this petition is being disposed of at the motion stage itself. Respondents No. 3 to 10 are the legal representatives of Panna Lal (deceased) who was a big land owner having land in various villages and some land under occupation of the old tenants. After the death of Panna Lal, private respondents filed application on 12.4.1961 under the Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act,1953 before the Special Collector, Haryana. The petitioners are the vendees of some of the lands. They also intervened in the proceedings. Lakhmi Chand is the predecessor-in-interest of the C.W.P No.1977 of 2011 2 petitioner, who filed revision before the Financial Commissioner, Haryana,Chandigarh, against order dated 26.3.1991 passed by the Special Collector, Financial Commissioner remitted the case back to Special Collector, Haryana for decision on the application of legal representatives on merits after hearing the parties vide order dated 26.3.1991. The Special Collector, Haryana, considered the matter and rejected the application of the private respondents for the reasons that they filed the application after a lapse of 10 years. However, private respondents filed an appeal against the order dated 14.1.1997 passed by Special Collector before the Commissioner Rohtak Division, Rohtak. The Commissioner has set aside the order of the Collector and remanded the case to the Special Collector, Haryana vide his order dated 5.3.1999. The Special Collector considered the case after remand and imposed penalty of 10 standard acre to each of the legal heirs of big land owner Panna Lal vide his order dated 12.3.2004 and at the same time declared the area of Lakhmi Chand predecessor-in-interest of the petitioner as surplus. Lakhmi Chand filed appeal before the Commissioner Rohtak Division, Rohtak against the order of the Special Collector, who again remanded the case back to the Collector vide order dated 10.5.2007. Now the matter is pending before the Special Collector, Haryana pursuant to the order passed by the Commissioner. This petition has been filed seeking a writ in the nature of mandamus for direction to the Special Collector to decide the case expeditiously as the matter is pending since the year 1971. In view of the prayer made herein, this petition is C.W.P No.1977 of 2011 3 disposed of with a direction to respondent No.2 to decide the case of the petitioner expeditiously, preferably within a period of six months after affording an opportunity of hearing to the parties in accordance with law. (PERMOD KOHLI) 02.02.2011. JUDGE Anoop