“The order was not appealed against. Needless to say that the order of the civil court was cryptic, against the rules of natural justice and was in violation of the specific provisions of the law.

“There is nothing in the judgement of the civil court to show whether the Sarpanch had any authorisation from the Gram Sabha in the form of its resolution or he filed any written statement on behalf of the panchayat. We would further say that the assumption of the jurisdiction by the civil court and its proceedings were in utter violation of the basics of the Civil Procedure Code.

“As per jamabandi of the year 1962-63, the Gram Panchayat is the owner of 16,734 bigha 10 biswa Gram Panchayat deh. The nature of the land as per jamabandi (revenue record) is Gair Mumkin Pahar (non cultivable hill) and Gair Mumkin (Non cultivable) Nadi (16,078 bigha 7 biswa), Banjar Jadid (5 bigha 16 biswa), Banjar Qadim (305 bigha 9 biswa) and the remaining land is Barani (without canal irrigation). Thus, the land was not cultivable and could not be construed to be under the possession of any person.

“Further, the whole of this area is covered under Sections 4 and 5 of the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1903. The nature of the land as per jamabandi pertaining to the year 2003-04 is still the same and is locked under the PLPA, 1903. On the basis of collusive decree of the civil court mentioned above, the Revenue Department without any authority or rationale went ahead to determine the fictitious shares of the villagers in the ratio of the proportion of the proprietors’ land in the total proprietary land of 1,552 bigha. The net result is that through this exercise, the Revenue Department allotted land to each of the proprietor 11 times of original lot of land in the village. The fraud is writ large on the face of it and there is no limitation to undo a fraudulent transaction.

“As the panchayat deh of 16,734 bigha 10 biswa land was not created after applying a pro rata cut on the land of the individual landowners of the village, there was no question of its giving back to them. The villagers are selling their notional share in the panchayat deh through registered sale deeds every day. This fraud is the result of the collusion between the villagers, village panchayat, authorities and the Revenue Department.

“There is another aspect relating to this village which may now be stated. Atma Ram, Lambardar and others of Mirzapur village filed a petition under Section 42 of the East Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948, before the Additional Director Consolidation of Holdings on October 20, 1980. In the petition it was prayed that the Shamlat deh Khewat of 15,727 bigha 9 biswa, should be partitioned among them. An objection was raised since most of the area is mountain and could not be partitioned. The Additional Director Consolidation, Gulbahar Singh agreed with the objection and decided that the hilly area could not be partitioned.

“Thereafter, the applicants raised another contention that lot of grass grows on the land which is sold to various paper mills and its proceeds need to be distributed among the right holders and unless the shares are mentioned, the value of the produce, which is substantial, cannot be distributed among the share holders.

“The Additional Director agreed with the contention and only for the purpose of distributing the produce and its value, he mentioned the shares of the right holders for that limited purpose only. The application under Section 42 was disposed of on 5.3.1981. The revenue officials interpreted the order fraudulently to the advantage of the right holders and by Mutation No 897 dated 14.12.1981 mutated the shares in the land in the name of the right holders.

This was, prima facie, a fraud committed by the revenue authorities in connivance with the villagers. Thereafter, the right holders started selling their shares indiscriminately to various persons.

“Prima facie, the following illegalities are involved in this case: The Civil Court had no jurisdiction to entertain and decide the question of title of the suit land, therefore, its decree is a nullity in the eye of law; The suit was collusive and the court also decided it in a cryptic and unprecedented summary way. The Revenue Department without any authority determined the fictitious shares. It involves violation of PLPA 1903, Forest- Laws and Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act 1961”.

(To be continued)

Besides the forest laws and regulations, the laws which were violated with impunity in Mirzapur village were:

• Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1903
• Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961
• Civil Procedure Code