Judgment

VENKATACHALA, J. :- The above Civil Appeals and the Special Leave Petitions (Civil) are that of the State of Haryana. While the judgment of Civil Writ Petition No. 6799 of 1974 of the Punjab and Haryana High Court (Karnal Co-op. Farmers Society Ltd., Pehowa v. Gram Panchayat, Pehowa etc., 1976 Current Law Journal (Civil), 417) and other judgments rendered following it are impugned in Civil Appeals Nos. 2605, 2607, 2608, 2610, 2611 and 26l5 of l977 and Special Leave Petitions (Civil) Nos. 1108 and 3042 to 3095 of 1978, the judgment in Civil Writ Petition No. 565 of 1981 of the same High Court (Bajinder Singh v. The Assistant Collector Ist Grade, Ghula, Distt. Kurukshetra, 1983 (85) Pun LR 528) and other judgments rendered following it are impugned in Civil Appeals Nos. 1381 to 1387 of 1990. Since common questions arise for our decision in these Appeals and Special Leave Petitions, all of them could conveniently be disposed of by this judgment.

2. The High Courts judgments appealed against in these Appeals and Special Leave Petitions are since based on its view of unconstitutionality of certain provisions in the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Haryana Amendment Act, 1974 - Amendment Act of 1974 and the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Haryana Amendment Act, 1980 - Amendment Act of 1981, which have amended the provisions of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act of 1961 - the principal Act, it would be advantageous to understand at the outset the historical background of the principal Act and the circumstances which led the State of Haryana to enact the Amendment Act of 1974 and further to enact the Amendment Act of 1981.

3. Villages in pre-independent rural India having village common or communal lands meant for use by the whole village community was their common redeeming feature, in that, the inhabitants of the villages whose occupation was predominantly agriculture dependent on their live-stock needed to give manure to their lands, to cart manure to their lands, to plough their lands to carry on several other incidental agricultural operations, required common lands for using as pasturages, pools, ponds, thrashing-floors, cowdung pits, hay stack areas, tethering areas and the like. Villages in the States of Punjab and Pepsu were of no exception. With the dawn of independence and rise in land value even in villages, powerful and greedy inhabitants in villages became grabbers of Village common lands depriving their use to the village community. Some of the States which were enabled by the Constitution of India to organise village Panchayats as units of Self Government and encourage growth of agriculture and animal husbandry in villages by suitable legislative measures took prompt steps to legislate on common lands of the village, so as to restore such lands for communal use and common benefit of all the inhabitants of the villages by vesting them in their respective Panchayats. Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act. 1953 and Pepsu Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1954 are two legislative measures enacted by the respective States of Punjab and Pepsu to vest the common lands of villages in their Panchayats for common benefit and advantage of the whole community of the village concerned. When under the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 Pepsu State merged in Punjab State, the said Pepsu Act continued to operate in the area of erstwhile Pepsu. When the operation of two legislative measures in the new Punjab State, which were in some respects not common, was found to be undesirable, the State of Punjab enacted the Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 referred to by us already as principal Act and made it operative in the whole territory of Punjab State, with effect from 4th day of May, 1961. By the principal Act the two earlier Acts which had covered the field till then were repealed, as well. The principal Act, as stated in its preamble, sought by its provisions to consolidate and a