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Hearing a public interest litigation pertaining to alleged land grab in the village by VVIPs, the court took a serious note of one of the sale deeds annexed by Sonam Kumar, son of former Punjab Government and UT Administrator, Lt Gen B K N Chhibber (retd), in his affidavit filed before the Deputy Commissioner, Mohali.
In the affidavits filed before the HC on March 30, 2006, the Mohali DC had stated that the land in question was “mushtarka malkan” (common land with many owners) till November 25, 1999, when ‘mushtarka malkan’ was dismantled and shares of each khewatdar (claimant who has possession on the said portion of land) was demarcated. According to the law, however, the control and management of the said land should have been vested in the Kansal gram panchayat.
In his affidavit, the DC said according to the report of Assistant Collector Grade-II, dated April 9, 1999, a major portion (229 kanals) of the said common land was in joint possession of VVIPs Sumedh Singh, Dinesh Singh, Savinder Singh Brar and Sonam Kumar. The affidavit even mentions the date of sale deeds executed in favour of the VVIPs before its mutation in favour of the actual shareholders on November 25, 1999 — Chandigarh Newsline has a copy of the list of all those VVIPs who were shown as the purchasers.
In certain cases, the VVIPs have purchased land months before the actual mutation was done. The Chief Justice has summoned the entire sale deeds registered in Kansal from January 1, 1999 to November 25, 1999. “We would like to know how the land was sold off when it was not even entered in the revenue record,” the Chief Justice said. He has also demanded the list of all officers who were in the Revenue department then and who allowed this to happen.
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