Chathewala (Bathinda), October 26
The volatile situation which had developed after thousands of farmers descended on this village to stop the auction of a piece of land of a local farmer, in lieu of payment of loan of commission agent on the order of civil court, was defused today when the same was postponed to January 20, 2005, by the Civil Judge, Talwandi Sabo, due to some procedural lapses.

After the auction of the land belonging to Mr Balwant Singh was postponed, activists of the BKU (Ekta), who had virtually sealed all the entry and exit points of this village since last night, held a victory rally and announced that on January 20 they would oppose the auction tooth and nail.

The farmers also managed to send away a few officials of the CID out of the village. They also forced the authorities to release all the activists of BKU activists, who were arrested by the police yesterday.

The Civil Judge, Talwandi Sabo, postponed the auction of the land on the application moved by SDM, Talwandi Sabo, Mr Gurkirat Kirpal Singh. The latter in his application mentioned that the civil court while passing the decree against Mr Balwant Singh had mentioned only for the pasting of that order and not issued any proclamation order.

The second ground, which was pleaded by Mr Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, was that concerned civil judge had given a short time for holding the auction after mushtari munadi (public proclamation).

Mr Gurkirat Kirpal Singh pointed out that the Civil Judge while agreeing to his pleas had postponed the auction and ordered that procedural lapses should be removed.

He added that if the auction was held today, it could have been quashed due to procedural lapses.

He, however, said that the authorities concerned had made foolproof arrangements to hold the auction in case the Civil Judge declined the application.

He said the Tehsildar, who was supposed to hold the auction, had also fallen sick.

The auction of the land was to be held on the order passed by Mr N.K. Gaur, the then Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division), Talwandi Sabo.

The decree was passed in favour of Mr Harcharan Dass, who was owed Rs 3.40 lakh by Balwant Singh. The auction had been postponed a number of times.

To prevent the situation from taking an ugly turn, the Talwandi Sabo SDM had imposed Section 144 of the CrPC in this region. He had also ordered residents of the area falling under Talwandi Sabo, Kot Fathe and Maur Mandi police stations to deposit their fire arms with the concerned police stations.