The ownership claims of Polo Hotels Limited over 15 acres of high-valued disputed land in erstwhile Chowki village of Panchkula face fresh scrutiny after the Supreme Court ruled that mere proof of pre-1950 possession by village proprietors was not enough to take the shamlat deh (village commons) land out of the purview of the Punjab Village Common Land (regulation) Act. The North Park Hotel in Panchkula is run by Polo Hotels Limited.
The apex court in its August 3 order held that a claimant must also establish that the land was partitioned before January 26, 1950, and individual cultivating possession followed the partition.
“As has been settled by well researched commentaries on the subject and the decisions of the Punjab and Haryana high court, makbuja malkan reflects joint possession. The high court’s consistent view on this point puts it beyond doubt that, unless there is a partition effected amongst the proprietors, as per their shares, in relation to the shamilat deh, whereby they could assert actual individual cultivating possession of such shares, they cannot claim that such land stood excluded under Section 2(g) of the Act of 1961,” said the apex court bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran in its August 3 judgement.
SC ruling to have implications on collector & commissioner’s orders
{{/usCountry}}SC ruling to have implications on collector & commissioner’s orders
{{/usCountry}}Revenue officials said that the ruling could have a bearing on the January 16, 2024, order passed by the court of Panchkula district collector in favour of Polo Hotels and the May 13, 2026, orders passed by Ambala divisional commissioner affirming the orders of district collector as neither of the two orders appeared to have recorded specific findings that the disputed land was partitioned on or before January 26, 1950, the cut-off date stipulated in the exclusion criteria under section 2(g)(viii) of the Punjab Village Common (Regulations) Act.
The court of the Panchkula district collector in its order had recognised M/s Polo Hotels Ltd and its director Abhey Ram Dahiya as the owners of about 15 acres and held that the disputed land was not an asset of gram panchayat Chowki and therefore could not have vested in the municipal corporation (MC).
The Panchkula municipal corporation, however, had contested this claim, pleading that the land had never been partitioned, none of the proprietors were in specific possession and the land had never been in individual cultivating possession of co-sharers before January 26, 1950.
The order of the district collector was challenged before the court of the Ambala divisional commissioner. Hearing an appeal filed by the Panchkula MC, the court of the divisional commissioner in its May 13 order affirmed the collector’s findings that the share of the predecessors of Polo Hotel and Abhey Ram Dahiya did not vest in the erstwhile Chowki gram panchayat and, therefore, could not be treated as an asset of the gram panchayat on the date the area was merged into the municipal corporation limits. Noting that the dispute was over the cultivating possession and share of vendors of Polo Hotels and its director in shamlat khewat of erstwhile Chowki village, the divisional commissioner twice sought reports from collector regarding dispute over cultivating possession and share of the predecessors Polo Hotel in the shamlat khewat.
A financial commissioner-rank officer empowered to hear matters pertaining to the Village Common Land Act will now hear an appeal with regards to the order passed by the divisional commissioner. Officials said that the crucial issue would be whether the orders of the collector and commissioner would meet the test laid down by the Supreme Court.
What Polo Hotels contended in its suit
Polo Hotels and its director had filed a suit in 2023 under Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act before district collector seeking declaration that 15 acres (72 bighas 3 biswas 6 biswansis) in the erstwhile Chowki village did not vest in gram panchayat or the MC. They claimed ownership as successors and purchasers from the original proprietors of the village through various sale deeds. According to them, the land had been recorded since 1926 as ‘shamlat deh hasab hissa mudaria paimana hakiyat’, reflecting the proprietary rights of the village landowners. They alleged that after enactment of the Punjab Village Common lands laws, the land was wrongly mutated in favour of the panchayat through a mutation of April 27, 1957. However, after the repeal of those enactments, another mutation restored the land and this entry was reflected in the 1974-75 jamabandi. It was also pleaded that the predecessors of Polo Hotel were in actual cultivating possession of the land in the shamlat deh khewat as per their share and they were not in possession in excess of their share. Thus, the land does not vest in the gram panchayat. It was also pleaded that Polo Hotel had applied to the director, town and country planning, for a grant of change of land use which was granted to them and was in the knowledge of the gram panchayat.