Judgment:
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.2389 of 2014 Date of Decision: February 10, 2014 Hari Singh and another .....Petitioners versus State of Punjab and others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT.
HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE AMOL RATTAN SINGH.
Present : Mr.Manish Dadwal, Advocate, for the petitioneRs.Mr.P.S.Bajwa, Additional AG, Punjab.
Mr.Sandeep Khunger, Advocate, for the Trust.
-.- 1.
Whether Reporters of Local papers may be allowed to see the judgment?.
2.
To be referred to the Reporters or not?.
3.
Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest?.
--- Surya Kant, J.
(Oral) Notice of motion.
On our asking, Mr.P.S.Bajwa, learned Additional Advocate General, Punjab, accepts notice on behalf of the State and Mr.Sandeep Khunger, Advocate, accepts notice on behalf of the Improvement Trust, Jalandhar.
Let two copies each of the writ petition be supplied to the learned counsel for the State and Trust, during the couRs.of day failing which this order shall be automatically recalled and the writ petition shall be deemed to have been dismissed for non-prosecution.
In view of the nature of order which we propose to pass, there is no necessity to seek any counter reply from the respondents at this stage.
Kumar Mohinder 2014.02.19 15:16 I attest to the accuracy of this order Chandigarh CWP No.2389 of 2014 [2].The petitioners are amongst those who have been identified to have encroached upon the public road in '110 Acres (Guru Teg Bahadur Nagar) Scheme', popularly known as 'Mohalla Latif Pura, Jalandhar'.
A Division Bench of this Court in CWP No.1957 of 2006 (Rabinder Singh and others versus State of Punjab and others (Annexure P-9).directed the District Administration including the Improvement Trust, Jalandhar etc., to remove the encroachments upon the above-mentioned road.
Those directions have been upheld by the Hon'ble Supreme Court vide order dated 2.9.2013 (Annexure P-10) observing that the petitioners would be asked to vacate the premises after considering their reply and adjudication of the matter.
The petitioners were accordingly given opportunity to submit their objections which have been turned down by the Improvement Trust by passing a self-speaking exhaustive order dated 09.01.2014.
The aggrieved petitioners are before us questioning the decision taken by the Improvement Trust.
According to them, no encroachment has been made by them and the 'demarcation report' relied upon by the Trust is defective and should there be a fresh demarcation at the spot, they would not be found to have encroached upon the public road.
We have heard learned counsel for the petitioners as well as learned counsel representing the State and Improvement Trust-caveator.
In our considered view, the plea raised on behalf of the petitioners is essentially a question of fact which has been objectively gone into by the Improvement Trust and calls Kumar Mohinder 2014.02.19 15:16 I attest to the accuracy of this order Chandigarh CWP No.2389 of 2014 [3].for no interference by a writ Court.
At best if there is any factual error in the demarcation carried out by the Improvement Trust, the remedial steps in this regard can be taken by the State Government who may, if there is any substance in the petitioneRs.factual plea, depute another team of experts to re-demarcate the area.
Consequently, we dispose of this writ petition with liberty to the petitioners to approach the State Government within three days who shall take an appropriate decision within one week thereafter as to whether a fresh demarcation need to be carried out or not and, if so, the Agency to carry out such re-demarcation.
If the petitioners are still aggrieved, they shall not be entitled to approach this Court though may approach any other alternative Forum.
Learned counsel for the Improvement Trust assures that till the Government takes a decision and/or carry out the re-demarcation, no demolition shall be made.
Ordered accordingly.
Dasti.
[SURYA KANT].JUDGE February 10, 2014 [AMOL RATTAN SINGH].Mohinder JUDGE Kumar Mohinder 2014.02.19 15:16 I attest to the accuracy of this order Chandigarh