New Delhi

The Supreme Court on Monday restored the ownership of over 274 acres (436 bighas and 18 biswas) of disputed land in Haiderpur, Gurugram, to the Municipal Corporation Gurugram (MCG), holding that the land is shamlat deh (village common land) and cannot be treated as private property merely because revenue records mention the names of village proprietors.

The Court set aside a 2007 Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment that had recognised private ownership claims over the land.

A Bench of Justice Sanjay Kumar and Justice K. Vinod Chandran held that the land is governed by the Haryana Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, and upheld the mutation dated September 13, 1955, in favour of the then Gram Panchayat, Wazirabad. The Court ruled that the rights of the Gram Panchayat subsequently stood transferred to the Municipal Corporation Gurugram after its constitution.

In its 85-page judgment, the Court observed that land has become the "new gold", particularly in rapidly expanding urban areas such as Gurugram, making disputes over village common land increasingly contentious. It cautioned that historical village commons cannot lose their legal character merely because the names of proprietors or pattis appear in revenue records.

The dispute concerns 436 bighas and 18 biswas of land situated in Haiderpur, an uninhabited (be chiraag) village adjoining Wazirabad in Gurugram. After the enactment of the Punjab Village Common Lands legislation, the land was mutated in favour of the Gram Panchayat, Wazirabad, in September 1955 pursuant to a government communication issued in March 1954.

The litigation began in 1985 when four residents of Wazirabad filed proceedings under Section 13A of the Haryana Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, claiming to represent the proprietors of different pattis of Haiderpur.

They challenged the 1955 mutation, contending that the land belonged to private proprietors, had never been used for common village purposes and therefore could not vest in the Gram Panchayat. They also alleged that the mutation had been sanctioned without issuing notice to the proprietors.

The matter underwent several rounds before the revenue authorities. In 1990, the Assistant Collector partly accepted the proprietors' claim. After the matter was remanded, the Assistant Collector again held substantially in their favour, declaring that except for a small portion comprising a pond and a village pathway, the remaining land belonged to the proprietors. The Collector upheld that decision in 1998.

However, in 2005, the Commissioner, Gurgaon Division, reversed the findings of the revenue authorities and restored the 1955 mutation in favour of the Gram Panchayat. The Punjab and Haryana High Court, in 2007, set aside the Commissioner's order, describing it as a non-speaking order, and restored the decisions of the Assistant Collector and Collector. The Supreme Court stayed the operation of the High Court judgment in January 2008.

During the hearing before the apex court, historical revenue records, including Jamabandis dating back to 1877, 1885 and 1905, were produced. The Court noted that these documents had not been placed before either the statutory authorities or the High Court. It also recorded that despite the Commissioner's interim stay order passed in April 1998, as many as 272 sale deeds were executed and corresponding mutations were sanctioned in favour of various private individuals and companies during the pendency of the dispute.

After examining the historical revenue records, the Sharat Wajib-ul-Arz and the statutory framework governing village common lands, the Supreme Court held that the records consistently described the disputed land as shamlat deh and not shamlat patti. The Bench observed that although the proprietors had a right to seek partition of the common land in accordance with their respective shares, no such partition had taken place before January 26, 1950.

As a result, the land retained its character as village common land and vested in the Gram Panchayat under Section 2(g)(1) of the Haryana Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961.

The Court further held that where revenue records describe land as shamlat deh, and there is no evidence that it had been partitioned or brought under the separate cultivating possession of individual proprietors before January 26, 1950, it is unnecessary to independently establish that the land was being used for common village purposes.

According to the Bench, the High Court and the revenue authorities failed to attach due importance to the Sharat Wajib-ul-Arz and the historical revenue records, which conclusively established the nature of the land.

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Holding that the plaintiffs had failed to establish any legal basis for setting aside the 1955 mutation, the Supreme Court allowed the appeals, quashed the Punjab and Haryana High Court's judgment and restored the mutation in favour of the Gram Panchayat, Wazirabad.

The Court clarified that the benefit of the mutation would now enure to the Municipal Corporation Gurugram, which has succeeded to the rights of the Gram Panchayat.