Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 10: A conspiracy of the Revenue Department officials and a group of villagers to get undue benefit of several crores of rupees by preparing illegal mutations of over 434 kanals village common land (Kacharai) in blatant violation of ban imposed by the Supreme Court has been surfaced in Leh. Taking serious note of this, the district administration has cancelled all the mutations and issued orders for keeping the compensation amount reserved for the common development of the village.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that land measuring 606 kanals situated in village Spituk in Leh district was requisitioned by the Assistant Defence Estates Officer for construction of ALH Base for Army in the year 2005 and during the preparation of revenue papers for the requisitioned land, it emerged that 434 kanals and 8 marlas of land was under the occupation of private persons of village Spituk and another 171 kanals and 12 marlas was State land.
After arriving at a negotiated compensation rate of Rs 60,000 per kanal, the private persons allowed the Army to take possession of their land for setting up permanent structures for the ALH base. Accordingly, the office of Deputy Commissioner Leh forwarded the case of acquisition to Home Department through Divisional Commissioner Kashmir for No Objection Certificate, which was received on August 28, 2006.
In the meanwhile, a group of villagers started approaching the then Deputy Commissioner Leh alleging that the so-called owners of 434 kanals and 8 marlas were illegal occupants as the land in question was originally the village pasture land, which was illegally mutated in their favour by the Revenue officials and thus belonged to the entire village, sources said. However, Tehsildar Settlement Leh, in his enquiry report prepared in the year 2006 on the directions of the then Deputy Commissioner Leh claimed that 434 kanals and 8 marlas of land was mutated in favour of these villagers.
While the process for transfer of State land measuring 171 kanals and 12 marlas to the Army was going on, the private persons led by Sonam Wangdus involved in 434 kanals of land knocked the doors of the High Court at Jammu for early release of compensation and the High Court vide order dated September 15, 2009 issued directions to the respondents to complete the process of acquisition and pay compensation to the petitioners within a period of three months.
Feeling aggrieved of this order, the Union of India through Ministry of Defence filed an LPA in the Division Bench, which vide order dated April 16, 2012 granted another six months time to the appellants to complete the entire process of acquisition and make the compensation in accordance with law.
However, the issue of compensation remained undecided as the other section of villagers approached the High Court at Srinagar on the ground that the official respondents were completing the acquisition proceedings resulting in payment of compensation to the private respondents for Kacharai land for which they were not entitled to, sources said.
During the pendency of the petition before the Srinagar wing of the High Court, the present Deputy Commissioner, Simrandeep Singh, on October 31, 2013 furnished a written statement mentioning that during in-depth scrutiny of record it came to fore that the land in dispute was indeed village common land, which cannot be mutated in favour of any villager keeping in view the ban imposed by the Supreme Court on illegal use of village common lands in a case titled Jaipal Singh Verus State of Punjab, sources said.
While justifying the grievance of other villagers, the Deputy Commissioner even conveyed to the High Court that if Kacharai land is acquired, the compensation is payable to the concerned Panchayat in whose jurisdiction the land falls as per the judgement of Division Bench of State High Court in case titled Ghulam Mohd Bhat and Others Versus State.
In the light of statement made by the Deputy Commissioner, the High Court on December 19, 2013 directed the State respondents to complete the entire process of acquisition and make the compensation whatever due to the claimants strictly in accordance with law, sources said.
Now, the Deputy Commissioner, while implementing the guidelines of the Supreme Court and State High Court, has held, “434 kanals and 8 marlas of land is Kacharai land and the mutations attested are void abinitio and are set-aside”. He has directed the Tehsildar Leh to reflect the same in revenue records and continue to show the land as Kacharai land/State land.
“The amount of compensation should be reserved for the common development of Spituk village and the compensation amount should be deposited with Assistant Commissioner Development for Leh, who will ensure its utilization for the development works of Spituk village after holding proper Gram Sabha”.
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