Satyam Sunder Goyal v. State & Others

1. The prayer in this writ petition is for a direction to Itespondents restraining fi'orn causing any interference or obstruction in the use and enjoyment of the Petitioner and also fiom causing any interference and obstruction in cultivating and harvesting by the Petitioner of the land admeasudng26 bighas fonning part of Khasra No. 398/2, Village Sabhapur, Delhi ('the properly in question').

2. By an order dated 2nd I)ecember 2009 this Courl directed the private parties against whom the allegations have been rnade in the writ petition tcr olt,/ 2010:DHC:12492 rf,i

3. Since there was a dispute raised by Respondents 5 to 24 that the / possession of the property in question was not r,vith the Petitioners and "JtV December 2009 this Court passed the following order: "Private Respondents have been served and have entered their appearance. There is a dispute about actual physical possession. The Petitioner clairns that they are in possession. Counsel for the private Respondents claims to the contrary. It is, however, accepted that the property in question is agricultural land, which has a boundary wall with one door/gate as an enfrance. The Respondents will file their counter affidavit within four weeks. Rejoinder affidavit, if any, within four rveeks after counter affidavit is served. With a view to resene tlre property and to ensure that there is no ftlrther acrimony or dispute, I appoint lv[r. Sandeep Anand, Advocate ([4obile No. 98188472481), who is present in the Court, as a Local Commissioner to visit the property in question and fix a lock on the main entrance after purchasing a lock from the market. The said task wiil be undertaken by the Local Commissioner todav itself. The Petitioner will pay a sum of Rs. 10,000/- to Mr. Sandeep Anand. The Local Commissioner will also take photographs of the boundary wall, gate before and after lock is fixed and teh land in question. Expenses for the photographs as well as the lock will be borne and paid by the private Respondents as accepted by the counsel for the said Respondents. Report will be submitted within three weeks. List on 13n' April 2010. ri

4. Pursuant to the above order, the keys of the property in question hattt \/ been deposited with the Registry of this Court by the Local Commissioner.

5. The submission of Mr. Ravi Gupta, learned Senior counsel appearing for the Petitioner and Mr. Sudhir Nandrajog, learned Senior counsel appearing for private Respondents 5 to 20 have been heard.

6. The case of the private Respondents is that Petitioner has forcibly encroached on to the property in question on the strength of six powers of attorney, the validity on which is disputed by the private Respondents. However, the fact of the Petitioner being in possession is not disputed by the private Respondents. In fact, the private Respondents 21 to 24 i.e. Maikhan Singh & Others had earlier filed a suit under Section 84 of the Delhi Land Revemre Act ('DLRA') seeking to recover possession from the Petitioners. The said suit was dismissed by the Revenue Assistant ('RA') on 8th November 2007. The revision petition filed thereagainst was dismissed by the Financial Commissioner ('FC') on 29th April 2008. It is stated that the suit for permanent injunction and declaration filed by Malkhan Singh before the learned City Civil Judge was dismissed on 22nd August 2009 as notmaintainable. An appeal fiied against the said order is stated to be pending before the Additional District Judee. \.;i \u in accordance with law. For the purpose of the present petition, it is \ lr sufficient to direct that the Petitioner should not be dispossessed from the property in question except in accordance with law. It is ordered accordingly. Consequently, the keys of the property in question which has been deposited by the Local Commissioner in this Court will be handed over by the Registry of this Court to the Petitioner through learned counsel within one week from today. J 8. The writ petition and the pending applications are disposed of in the I above terms.

S.MURALIDHAR, J DECEMBER 1,3,2010 rk,l