Punjab & Haryana HC dismisses review plea attributing illegality to vindicated petitioners’ family members

Read Order: Balwan Singh And Another v. State Of Haryana And Others

LE Staff

Chandigarh, August 19, 2021: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed a plea seeking review of its earlier order by alleging that while two men were found by the Court to not be in illegal possession of a portion of land, their brother and nephew were the culprits.

A Bench of Justice Augustine George Masih and Justice Ashok Kumar Verma said their earlier order, holding the previous petitioners not in illegal possession of the land, was limited to the extent of petitioners in the writ petition only and did not cover any other person found to be in illegal possession of the said land.

By an order dated July 12, 2021, the Bench had, on the basis of a demarcation report which was submitted to it by the State authorities in pursuance to its earlier order, found that the two petitioners were not in illegal possession of gram panchayat land in a village in Haryana’s Karnal district.

A respondent in the case, Satbir Singh, moved a review plea before the Bench saying that “may be the petitioners are not personally in illegal possession of the gram panchayat land but his brother and nephew are in illegal possession of the gram panchayat land as per the said report which has been submitted to this Court”.

During the hearing on August 16, 2021, the Bench said, “We may clarify here that the order, which has been passed by us on 12.07.2021, was limited to the extent of petitioners in writ petition only and that too was passed upon the demarcation report which has been placed on record.” 

It further said, “We want to clarify the position further here by asserting that any person, who has been found in encroachment of gram panchayat land, would not be treated to have been covered by our order dated 12.07.2021 and it would be open to the competent authority to proceed against them, in accordance with law.”

The High Court thus did not find any ground for review of its order dated 12.07.2021.

“With these observations / clarifications, the review application of the applicant is disposed of,” said the Bench.