Madan Lal vs Additional Director Consolidation of Holdings Punjab-cum-Director Land Records Punjab

Hemant Gupta, J.—The grievance of the petitioner is that his land has been wrongly recorded under the ownership of Central Government during the process of consolidation. However, the stand of the Gram Panchayat is that the petitioner was not the owner of land at the time of consolidation and that the shortage of land of the petitioner cannot be made good from the land of Gram Panchayat and the petitioner has no claim against the consolidation department and that the grievance of the petitioner can be redressed by the Department of Rehabilitation by allotting an alternate land.

We find that the representative of the State Government u/s 42 of the East Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948 (for short, ''the Act'') does not have jurisdiction to allot land to the petitioner. Question of title and of deficiency, if any, against the Rehabilitation Department cannot be decided by the authority u/s 42 of the Act.

In view thereof, we do not find any error or illegality in the order passed by the Director, Land Records Punjab. Thus, the present writ petition is dismissed. However, it shall be open to the petitioner to avail any other such remedy including before the Rehabilitation Authorities as is available to him in accordance with law.