Cracking the whip on the criminal-politician-administration nexus and to free the Gram Sabha (GS) and Gram Panchayat (GP) lands from encroachers and land grabbers across the country, the Supreme Court has directed the Chief Secretaries (CS) of all the States and Union Territories (UTs) to prepare comprehensive schemes for eviction of illegal occupants.
A bench comprising Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra in their 12-page judgement ruled, "Before parting with this case we give directions to all the state governments in the country that they should prepare schemes for eviction of illegal/unauthorised occupants of Gram Sabha/Gram Panchayat/Poramboke/Shamlat lands and these must be restored to the Sabha/Panchayats for the common use of villagers of the villages.For this purpose the CS of all state governments/UTs in India are directed to do the needful, taking the help of other senior officers of the governments," they said.
"The said scheme should provide for the speedy eviction of such illegal occupant after giving him a show-cause notice and a brief hearing," the order said.Long duration of such illegal occupation or huge expenditure in making constructions thereon or political connections must not be treated as a justification for condoning this illegal act or for regularising the illegal postion," it said.
The court said regularisation should only be permitted in exceptional cases, where, for example, lease has been granted under some government notification to landless labourers or members of SCs/STs or where there is already a school, dispensary or other public utility on the land.
The court directed the Court Registry to send the copy of the order to all CS of all states/UTs in India, who will submit compliance report to this court from time to time and ensure strict and prompt compliance of the order.
Common village land worth hundreds of crores in Punjab and Haryana, presently under possession of the rich and the politically influential, may soon be restored back to the respective gram panchayats. With the Supreme Court putting its foot down on land deals where land is taken from gram panchayats by private persons on lease, or bought from the khewatdars on a GPA (General Power of Attorney), there is consternation in both Punjab and Haryana.
The village common land or shamlat land is meant to be kept aside for use for common purpose of villagers. The control of this land rests with the village panchayat, which can lease it out (for purposes like education, agriculture, public utility and professional use) to get revenue for carrying out development works in the village. However, over the years, shrinking land near the big cities has led to an unholy nexus between land sharks and government officials.
Shamlat land, especially near the periphery of big cities Mohali, Panchkula in Punjab and Haryana, is now under ownership of private person/enterprise. Even in those villages where the consolidation of land did not take place, the share of the khewatdars is decided following ratification by the government. These khewatdars then get together and the General Power of Attorney of these shares is executed in favour of one person after taking consideration for the land shown under their share. This done, the land is then sold off to a private person, mostly on GPA.
The Supreme Court judgement clearly says that all orders issued by any state government permitting the allotment of gram sabha land to private persons and enterprises on the payment of money, are illegal and should be ignored. This could mean that all such land deals will have to be re-examined in the context of the Punjab Village Common Lands Act and Public Premises Act, and such land could be given back to the respective villagers.
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