New Delhi, Aug 3 The Supreme Court on Monday restored the ownership of over 436 bighas of land in Gurugram to a gram panchayat while setting aside a 2007 Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment that had recognised private ownership claims.
In a landmark ruling on the sanctity of common village lands, a bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran said, "Land is considered the ‘new gold’. More so, when such land is proximate to expanding urban agglomerations like Gurugram".
Justice Kumar, writing a 85–page judgment for the bench, held that the disputed land constituted "shamilat deh" (village common land) under the Haryana Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961.
It held that the high court erred in treating it as privately owned land merely because the revenue records reflected the names of village 'pattis' (proprietary groups).
“The impugned common judgment dated August 24, 2007 passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court is, therefore, unsustainable on facts and in law. The appeals are, accordingly, allowed setting aside the same and confirming the mutation effected on September 13, 1955 in favour of the Gram Panchayat, Wazirabad, which shall enure to the benefit of its successor-in-interest, the Municipal Corporation, Gurgaon (now, Gurugram),” the bench held.
The verdict found that the plaintiffs failed to make out any tenable grounds to interfere with the mutation effected on September 13, 1955 in favour of the Gram Panchayat, Wazirabad.
“The facts demonstrate that the subject land was not shamilat patti but constituted part of the shamilat deh of Haiderpur. Though the proprietors, viz., patti Chitru, Ramratan and Medha; patti Sadasukh; and patti Ahmed Ali Khan, had the right to seek partition thereof in accordance with their shares, no such partition took place prior to January 26, 1950 and, in consequence, the shamilat deh of 436 Bighas 18 Biswas continued as such, attracting Section 2(g)(1) of the Act of 1961, and vested in the Gram Panchayat, Wazirabad,” it said.
The dispute concerned 436 bighas and 18 biswas in the uninhabited village (be ‘chiraag mauza’) of Haiderpur, adjoining Wazirabad in present-day Gurugram.
The land had been mutated in favour of the gram panchayat in 1955 after the enactment of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1953.
Decades later, individuals claiming through village proprietors challenged the mutation, contending that the land belonged to private pattis and never vested in the panchayat.
In the judgment, the top court traced the historical evolution of village commons from pre-Independence Punjab to the present statutory framework.
It also examined customary law, the evidentiary value of the Sharat Wajib-ul-Arz, and the legislative intent behind common lands legislation.
The bench said that village common lands were historically reserved for communal purposes and that the post-Independence statutes were enacted to ensure such lands vested in gram panchayats for the benefit of village inhabitants.
Rejecting the high court verdict, the top court held that the mere recording of proprietors' names or entries such as "hasab rasad" in revenue records did not alter the essential character of land already described as ‘shamilat deh’.
It restored the 1955 mutation in favour of the Gram Panchayat, Wazirabad, and re-affirmed the panchayat's title over the disputed land.
