A civil court decree passed before the amendment of Section 13 of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, in 1976, which barred the jurisdiction of civil courts in respect of matters arising out of the operation of the Act, is binding on the authorities under the Act.

N.K.Kapoor, J.

1. This judgment shall dispose of civil writ petition Nos. 2958,2959 2960 of 1983.

2. Petitioners seek quashing of Annexures P-4 and P-5 or for grant of any other writ, direction or order as the Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case.

3. It is the case of the petitioners that sometime in the year 1950-51 on account of consolidation of holdings in the village they as well as other allottees were allotted separate qurrahs as per their entitlement. A part of their land was taken from each of the right holder for common purposes as Bachat land. Subsequently, this Bachat land was recorded in revenue record as Shamlat Deh of the proprietors of the village Hasab Rasad Khewat Dar. It is the case of the petitioners that such a land could not be termed or deemed to be Shamlat Deh in terms of Section 2(g) of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act (hereinafter to be referred as the Act). It is in the year 1970 that Nagar Panchayat made attempts to put this common purposes land to lease to various right holders and petitioners alongwith 61 right holders filed a civil suit for declaration to the effect that land measuring 164 bighas 1 biswas as per details given did not vest in the Gram Panchayat and infact is owned by the petitioners. By way of consequential relief petitioners prayed that respondent-Gram panchayat be restrained from leasing the same or interfering with their possession. This suit was decreed by the civil Court on 30.11.1972, annexure P-2. With a view to get rid of the civil Court decree Gram Panchayat through its Sarpanch Kashmir Singh filed suit No. 149-T on 27.1.1982 for setting aside the judgment and decree dated 30.11.1972. This suit was also dismissed by the Court vide judgment and decree dated 18.5.1983; copy of the judgment is annexure P-3. Despite the decision of the civil Court holding that the land in dispute is owned and possessed by the petitioners and other right holders, yet respondent-Gram Panchayat instituted an application for eviction of the petitioners Under Section 7 of the Act. The District Development and Panchayat Officer further declined to place reliance upon the decision of the civil Court and so passed an order of eviction, annexure P-4. Appeal filed by the petitioners too has been dismissed by the appellate authority, annexure P-5. Petitioners have termed the orders, annexures P-4 and P-5 to be wholly without jurisdiction, void, illegal and un-justified on the following grounds :-

(i) That the land subject matter of adjudication does not fall within the ambit of Shamlat Deh as per Section 2(g) of the Act;

(ii) That the decision of the civil Court holding that the land is not Shamlat Deh is binding between the parties ; and

(iii) That the civil Court decree dated 30.11.1972 having been passed before the amendment effected in Section 13 of the Act could not be ignored in view of the full Bench judgment reported as Gram Panchayat, Village Bathoi Katan v. Jogar Ram, (1991-1)99 P.L.R. 260 i.e. the authorities under the Act cannot go into the validity of the civil Court decree which is prior to the year 1976.

4. Contesting the claim set up by the petitioners, the contesting respondents beside raising few preliminary objections have controverted the various material averments made in the petition. By way of preliminary objections, it has been stated that petitioners cannot pursue two remedies at a time i.e. one by way of writ petition and the other by way of civil suit and so that writ petition deserves to be dismissed on this ground alone; that Shangara Singh-petitioner No.2 died some 5 years back but his legal representatives, namely, Balbir Singh and Joga Singh have not come forward to prosecute the pending writ petition; that Inder Singh has handed over the possession of the land in dispute to the Gram Panchayat and the Gram Panchayat has leased it in an open auction held on 10.1.1994; and that another suit has been filed by Piara Singh and o