A party approaching the court with unclean hands is not entitled to seek relief.

ORDER

Jaswant Singh, J. - The five petitioners, namely, Sunil Kumar, Sandeep Kumar, Suresh Kumar, Devinder Singh and Baljit Singh, have filed the present writ petition seeking a writ in the nature of Mandamus for directing the official respondents to convert the Gair Mumkin Johar situated within the Abadi Deh area of Village Jai Singh Pura, Tehsil Assandh, District Karnal into a park instead of converting it into a drainage of waste water of Abadi Deh, as the same would result into causing of inconvenience to the entire village.

2. A perusal of writ petition shows that petitioners claim themselves to be residents of the village and plead that in front of their houses, a Johar is located which lies in Khasra No. 142 (29-1). It is pleaded that this Johar is not being used since long however now the Gram Panchayat is digging Johar which will only lead to causing of inconvenience to petitioners and other residents of village as its digging would lead to accumulation of dirty water and thus becoming a reason for spreading of various diseases, especially during rainy season. It is further argued that village already has three more Johars and therefore the present Johar's usage be discontinued and same be converted into park for the benefit of all residents of village.

3. On being put to notice, official respondent Nos. 1 to 4 as well as Gram Panchayat - respondent No. 5, have filed their respective written statements.

4. Respondent Nos. 1 to 4 have filed their written statement through Block Development & Panchayat Officer, Assandh and submitted that the petitioners have not come to the court with clean hands as material facts have been suppressed. As per the written statement, at the time of Consolidation, the Johar in question which is comprised in Khasra No. 142 (29-1) and 143 was reserved for the welfare and benefit of the inhabitants of the village for drainage of rainy/ waste water of the village. It is also averred that there is no other place for drainage of such water except the Johars reserved during consolidation in the village, including the instant one. Further, it is stated that the petitioners are infact encroachers of the land reserved for present Johar, who have already been served notices dated 30.05.2020 (R-l to R-4) to vacate the encroachment from Panchayat Land but the petitioners/ other encroachers have not vacated the same till date and instead petitioner No. 4 has filed a Civil Suit No. 314 of 2020 titled as "Devender Singh Vs. Gram Panchayat Jaisinghpur etc" claiming himself tobe owner in possession. It is thus stated that the present petition is nothing but gross abuse of process of law whereby the petitioners under the garb of the instant writ petition are trying to grab the panchayat land reserved for Johar.

5. Respondent No. 5-Gram Panchayat has also filed its written statement on similar lines with an additional plea that in order to ascertain the nature of possession of petitioners, a demarcation was got conducted on 14.07.2020 (R-5/7) in which it was found that petitioners alongwith others are in illegal possession of land reserved for Johar.

6. To counter the assertions made by respondents, the petitioners have filed their replication to the written statement of respondent Nos. 1 to 4 whereby they have pleaded that except petitioner No. 1, none of the other petitioners are in illegal possession and infact their family members were found in un-authorized possession. Further, the petitioners have also disputed the correctness of the demarcation report by stating that same has been conducted wrongly. However, it is stated that they are ready to vacate any land in their illegal possession.

7. With these pleadings, the respondents have prayed for dismissal of writ petition.

8. We have heard learned counsel for the parties at length who have argued in lines of the case set up by them in their respective pleadings and have also scrutinized the record.

9. Before adverting to the issue involved, it would be apposite t