C.W.P. No. 3598 of 1982

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT

CHANDIGARH

1.

C.W.P. No. 3598 of 1982

Date of decision: 8.8.2007

Paramjit Kaur

...Petitioner

Versus

State of Punjab and others

...Respondents

2.

C.W.P. No. 3570 of 1982

Devinder Singh

...Petitioner

Versus

State of Punjab and others

...Respondents

3.

C.W.P. No. 3571 of 1982

Jasbir Kaur

...Petitioner

Versus

State of Punjab and others

...Respondents

4.

C.W.P. No. 3732 of 1982

Devinder Singh

...Petitioner

Versus

State of Punjab and others

...Respondents

CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RAJESH BINDAL

Present: Mr. M.L.Saggar, Senior Advocate with

Mr. J.S.Dhaliwal and Mr. Gautam Dutt, Advocates

for the petitioners.

Mr.Arvind Mittal, Additional Advocate General, Punjab

for respondents.

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RAJESH BINDAL, J.

Challenge in this bunch of four writ petitions bearing Nos.

C.W.P. No. 3598 of 1982

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3570, 3571, 3598 and 3732 of 1982 is to the orders passed by Chief Sales

Commissioner (Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana) under Section 10 of the

Punjab Package Deal Properties (Disposal ) Act, 1976 (for short 'the Act')

whereby sale of land in favour of the petitioners in auction proceedings was

set aside.

Facts have been noticed from Civil Writ Petition No.3598 of

1982.

Briefly the facts, as narrated in the petition, are that large

number of evacuee land situated at various places in the State of Punjab

including village Khera Bet, Tehsil and District Ludhiana was lying

unutilized for many years after partition of the country. The land in

question was situated along with river Satluj. Initially no displaced person

opted for allotment of this land in lieu of land left by them in Pakistan.

Some time in 1961, all the unallotted evacuee waste land, including the land

in question was transferred by the Central Government to the State of

Punjab at a fixed price. This was done under a transaction popularly known

as 'Package Deal'. For the disposal of this land, State Government framed

the Rules for the Sale of Surplus and Rural Properties (for short 'the Rules')

and appointed various officers for the disposal thereof by way of open

auction or otherwise. Land measuring 78 kanals 16 marlas situated in

village Khera Bet, Tehsil and District Ludhiana was put to open auction on

December 5, 1963. Due process as required under the Rules was followed

before the auction proceedings were conducted. It is further alleged in the

petition that at the time of auction about 70 persons were present including

Ex-Sarpanch and Numberdar. However, the land being totally waste and

on the bank of river Satluj only a few persons participated in the auction.

The bid sheet has been placed on record as Annexure P-1. After auction

proceedings, the record was submitted to the competent authority, namely

Settlement Officer for approval and confirmation of the bid, which was

confirmed as no objection was raised by anybody. After purchase of land

the petitioner made continues efforts and improved the quality of land by

spending huge amount. It was after 17 years of allotment that petitioners

was issued a notice by the Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana as Chief Sales

C.W.P. No. 3598 of 1982

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Commissioner under the Act, in exercise of powers conferred under Section

10 thereof. This was done in reference made to him by the Rehabilitation

Department of the State. The petitioner objected to the proposed action of

cancellation of sale, however, still vide order dated June 30, 1981

(Annexure P-4), Chief Sales Commissioner (Deputy Commissioner,

Ludhiana) set aside the sale of the land in question in favour of the

petitioners on the ground that proclamation for sale of land was defective

and factum of auction is not recorded in any record maintained by the

concerned Patwari. This is the order under challenge before this Court in

th