Land encroachment: Punjab and Haryana High Court orders collector to issue notice to tehsildar for dereliction of duty
Saurabh Malik
Chandigarh, January 3
In a significant order aimed at ensuring a clear course of action to resolve the issue of encroachments, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has deprecated the dereliction of duty by a tehsildar before directing the collector concerned to issue a show-cause notice to him, seeking an explanation for the failure to take action.
The direction by the Bench of Justice Sureshwar Thakur and Justice Sudeepti Sharma came on a petition filed by Lakhvir Singh against the state of Punjab and other respondents alleging encroachments on land designated as “gair mumkin hadda rori, gair mumkin chappar and gair mumkin passage”.
Taking up the matter, the Bench observed the demarcation of the site was required to be conducted by an empowered revenue officer for ensuring lawful action against the encroachers by a sarpanch of the panchayat concerned.
As such, the Block Development and Panchayat Officer concerned addressed a letter to Samana tehsildar for conducting demarcation of the relevant land. But further directions were not passed by the tehsildar to the “empowered revenue officer concerned” for the demarcation of the site despite the letter.
As a result, lawful action was not initiated under Section 7 of the Punjab Village Common Land (Regulation) Act, 1961, to remove the encroachers.
The Bench asserted: “Consequently, the dereliction of duty on part of tehsildar, Samana, is deprecated and a show-cause notice is directed to be issued to him by the collector of the revenue district concerned for eliciting from him the reason for his failure to draw any lawful action upon the letter.”
Before parting with the order, the Bench directed Samana tehsildar to forthwith appoint an empowered revenue officer for conducting lawful demarcation of the relevant site. The Judges added the sarpanch of the panchayat concerned or BDPO concerned would forthwith move a petition under Section 7 of the Act before the Assistant Collector, if some encroachments were revealed in the validly conducted demarcation of the land. The Assistant Collector concerned, in turn, would then pass a lawful speaking order after hearing all the affected persons within six months of the petition.
