Daya Chaudhary, J.:- This judgment shall dispose of C.W.P. Nos. 6303 and 12915 of 2006 as both the petitions arise from the impugned order dated 16.3.2006 passed by Joint Development commissioner.

The facts are being taken from CWP No. 12915 of 2006 (Punjab Wakf Board Vs. Joint Development Commissioner and others).

2. Punjab Wakf Board has filed the present writ petition for quashing of order dated March 16, 2006 passed by Joint Development Commissioner (exercising the powers of Commissioner) vide with the appeal filed by Gram, Panchayat has been allowed and order the June 13 2005 passed by Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) cum Collector, Hoshiarpur has been set aside. The Commissioner has further directed the respondents to vacate the land and hand over the possession to Gram Panchayat before April 30, 2006.

3. Briefly the fact of the case, as pleaded in the writ petition, are that the Gram Panchayat filed an application before District Development and Panchayat Officer0-cum-Collector under Section 7 of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 (for short ‘the Act’) for eviction of respondents No.4 to 6 from the land measuring 41 kanals 11 marlas bearing Khasra Nos.47 min (20-16), 47 min (20-15), Khatoni No. 347, 348 Khewat No. 275 situated in village Lalewal, Tehsil Dasuya, district Hoshiarpur on the basis of entries in the Jamabandi for the year 1995-96. The application was allowed and order of eviction against petitioner and respondents No.4 to 6 was passed on May 29, 2003 by D.D & P.O.-cum Collector and the same was challenged before the Joint Development Commissioner (IRD) (exercising the powers of Commissioner) by respondents No. 4 to 6. The Joint Development Commissioner allowed the Appeal to the extent that the impugned order of the lower court was set aside and the case was remanded to ABC (D) Hoshiarpur with the direction that if the title is decided in favour of the gram panchayat, it would be competent to evict them by seeking eviction proceedings under Section 7 of the Act.

4. Additional Deputy Commissioner (D) exercising power the Collector, held that the Punjab Wakf Board is the owner of the property in dispute and the claim of the Gram Panchayat was dismissed. Later on the Gram Panchayat filed appeal under Section 11(2) of the Act in which operation of order passed by ADC (D) was stayed till further orders. Meanwhile C.W.P. No.17446 of 2005 was filed by respondents 4 to 6 in which the following, order was passed:

“Learned counsel for the parties are ad idem that the petition be disposed of with a direction to the appellate authority to decide the appeal within a time frame and that during the pendency of the appeal, the petitioner shall not be dispossessed.

In view of the above, the petition is disposed of with a direction to the appellate authority to take a conscious and cautious decision upon the appeal on the date already fixed i.e. “March 8, 2006, as indicated by the learned counsel for the parties. If it not possible to dispose of the appeal on the date fixed, it be decided on the next adjourned date but no further adjournment should be granted to any parties. However, during the pendency of the appeal, the petitioner shall not be dispossessed.”

5. The Commissioner vide order dated March 16, 2006 allowed the appeal of the Gram Panchayat and order dated June 13, 2005 passed by Addl. Deputy Commissioner-cum-Collector was set aside and it was held by the Commissioner in the order dated March 16, 2006 that the title of land vests with the Gram Panchayat under the provisions of Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 and respondents were directed vacate the land and hand over possession to the Gram Panchayat. Two separate writ petitions have been filed, one by Punjab Wakf Board and another by Lal Singh, azara Singh and Jit Singh impugning the order of Commissioner dated March 16, 2006, which is subject matter of challenge in the present writ petitions.

6. Mr. C.R. Dahiya