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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Village Common Land--Gram Panchayat land can be used for allotting plots to scheduled castes and backward classes

2010(1) LAW HERALD (P&H) (DB) 401
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
(DIVISION BENCH)
Before
The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Hemant Gupta
The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Jora Singh
LPA No. 1322 of 2009
Gurmukh Singh & Anr.
v.
State of Haryana & Ors.
{Decided on 08/01/2010}
For the Appellant: Mr. Vikram Singh, Advocate.
IMPORANT POINT
Village Common Land--Gram Panchayat land can be used for allotting plots to scheduled castes and backward classes in terms of Section 5-A of 1961 Act inserted vide Haryana Act No. 8 of 2007 read with clause (xxv) of Sub Rule (2) of Rule 3 of Rules providing ‘residential’ as one of purpose of use of shamlat deh land.
East Punjab Holding (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948--Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, S.2(g) and 5-A [ inserted by Haryana Act 8 of 2007]--Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Rule, 1964, Rr.3(2) (xxv)--Reserved Land--Allotment of--Challenge to policy whereby land reserved for common purposes in consolidation scheme is proposed to be allotted to persons belonging to scheduled caste below poverty line--Gram Panchayat has passed resolution and send list of residents to State Government for allotment of plots--Land was reserved for common purposes of village and Gram Panchayat is recorded as owner after applying pro-rata cut during consolidation--As per jamabandi, Gram Panchayat reflected to be owner of suit and forest department is in possession of same--Since Gram Panchayat is owner of suit land same can be used for allotting plots to scheduled castes and backward classes in terms of Section 5-A of 1961 Act inserted vide Haryana Act No. 8 of 2007 read with clause (xxv) of Sub Rule (2) of Rule 3 of Rules providing ‘residential’ as one of purpose of use of shamlat deh land. (P.15 & 16)