IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA, CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.8474 of 2009 Date of Decision: May 25, 2011 Suresh Chand & others .....PETITIONER(S) VERSUS Commissioner, Rohtak Division, Rohtak & others .....RESPONDENT(S) . . . CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AJAI LAMBA PRESENT: - Mr. Ashish Aggarwal, Advocate, for the petitioners. Mr. B.S. Saini, Senior Deputy Advocate General, Haryana, for respondent Nos.1 to 3. Mr. R.S. Budhwar, Advocate, for respondent No.4. None for respondent Nos.5 to 16. . . . AJAI LAMBA, J (Oral) 1. This petition impugns orders passed by the authorities under the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 (as applicable to Haryana), vide which the petitioners have been held to be in unauthorised possession of Gram Panchayat land. CWP No.8474 of 2009 [2] 2. On 28.5.2009, the following order was passed:- “Counsel says that he will restrict prayer to right to purchase this land over which the petitioners have constructed a house in terms of the policy formulated by the Government. Notice of motion to this extent for 23.7.2009. Dispossession of the petitioners is stayed till further orders. To be put up before Registrar (Judicial-III) on the adjourned date for completion of preliminaries.” 3. In view of order dated 28.5.2009, only issue alive before this Court is as to whether petitioners can be allowed to purchase the land in terms of policy formulated by the Government. 4. Sale of land is permissible under Rule 12(4) of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Rules, 1964 (for short, ‘the Rules’), which reads as under:- “12. xx xx xx xx xx xx xx (4) The Gram Panchayat may with the prior approval of the State Government, sell its non cultivable land in shamilat deh to the inhabitants of the village who have constructed their houses on or before 31st March, 2000, not resulting in any obstruction to the traffic and passers-by, alongwith open space upto 25% of the constructed area or an appurtenant area upto a maximum of 200 square yards at not less than collector rate.” 5. The resolution passed by the Gram Panchayat has been placed on record as Annexure R-4/2. In the resolution, it has been said by the Gram Panchayat that land in question is Gau Charand and being situate on the main Rasta, Gram Panchayat is not willing to sell the land to the petitioners, under Rule 12(4) of the Rules. This Court has taken note of the fact that as per the jamabandi, ownership of the land is of Gram Panchayat Deh and CWP No.8474 of 2009 [3] nature of land has been shown as Gair Mumkin Johar and Gair Mumkin Charand. 6. When the circumstances are collectively considered, it transpires that the nature of land is such that it is required to be restored for use of the same by residents of the village for common purposes. The pond is required to be restored as a pond and charand as charand. The petitioners have taken the land in unauthorised occupation which cannot be endorsed by executive or judicial decision. In such circumstances, no fault can be found with the resolution (Annexure R-4/2) passed by the Gram Panchayat which is an authority that is required to move the file for sale of land under Rule 12(4) of the Rules. 7. No ground for judicial review of impugned orders in exercise of extraordinary writ jurisdiction is made out and no interference is called for. 8. The petition is dismissed. (AJAI LAMBA) May 25, 2011 JUDGE avin 1. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 2. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest?