CWP No. 5881 of 1992 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH (1) CWP No. 5881 of 1992 Date of Decision : 8.12.2010 Gurdial Singh & others ......Petitioners Versus Additional Director Consolidation of Holdings & another ......Respondents (2) CWP No. 10568 of 1988. Date of Decision : 8.12.2010 Sewa Singh & others ......Petitioners Versus The Director of Consolidation of Holdings & others ......Respondents (3) CWP No. 4886 of 1988. Date of Decision : 8.12.2010 Darbara Singh & others ......Petitioners Versus The Director Consolidation of Holdings & others ......Respondents (4) CWP No. 5206 of 1988. Date of Decision : 8.12.2010 Joginder Singh & others ......Petitioners Versus The Director, Consolidation of Holdings and others ......Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE NAWAB SINGH Present: Mr. A.P. Kaushal, Advocate & Mr. S.S. Sodhi, Advocate for CWP No. 5881 of 1992 2 Mr. A.S. Karla, Advocate, Mr. M.L. Saini, Advocate, CWP No. 5881 of 1992 (2) Ms. Rajni Gupta, Addl. AG, Punjab for respondent-State. Mr. Jai Bhagwan, Advocate for respondents No.4,5,15 to 19 in CWP No.4886 of 1988 Mr. Viney Saini, Advocate for Mr. G.S. Nagra, Advocate, for respondent No.8 in CWP No.10568 of 1988. NAWAB SINGH J.(ORAL) This order would dispose of above named four writ petitions because identical question of law and facts is involved in all these four petitions. The facts are being taken from CWP No.5206 of 1988. The petitioners have field these writ petitions challenging orders (i) dated October 20th, 1986 (Annexure P-2) passed by Consolidation Officer, Ropar at Mohali (for short 'the CO') and; (ii) dated January 11th, 1988 (Annexure P-3) passed by Director, Consolidation of Holdings, Punjab (for short 'the DCH'). By order dated October 20th, 1986 (Annexure P-2), the CO carried out re-partition of the land in question in accordance with scheme of consolidation of holdings envisaged under Section 20 of East Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948. Against the said order, petitioners filed petition under Section 42 of the Act before the DCH. The DCH dismissed the petition on the short ground that petitioners had the remedy to file appeal against the order passed by the CO before the Settlement Officer (Consolidation) (for short 'the SO') as provided under Section 21(3) of the Act and not before him, because appeal before him lies against the order passed by the SO as provided under Section 21(4) of the Act. The only prayer made by learned counsel for the petitioners is that the petitioners be allowed to challenge the order dated October 20th, 1986 (Annexure P-2) passed by the CO before CWP No. 5881 of 1992 3 the SO. The submission being convincing, the petitioners are allowed to challenge the order dated October 20th, 1986 CWP No. 5881 of 1992 (3) (Annexure P-2) before the SO. It is recorded for the sake of clarity that petitioners shall file appeal before the SO within 30 days from the date of receipt of this order and the SO shall not take into consideration the period of limitation because the writ petition remained pending before this Court. Disposed of. (NAWAB SINGH) JUDGE 8.12.2010. SN