New Delhi, September 17: In a major setback to the Haryana Government, the Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed its April 2022 ruling that had directed village common lands to be vested with gram panchayats, restoring ownership rights to village proprietors.
A bench headed by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai, along with Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and K.V. Viswanathan, allowed a review plea and set aside the 2022 judgment. The court upheld a 2003 full bench ruling of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which had held that land not specifically earmarked for common purposes during consolidation belongs to proprietors, not the panchayat or the state.
“We find no error in the judgment of the full bench of the high court in applying the doctrine of stare decisis to the facts of the present case inasmuch as it followed the law which was consistently applied in more than 100 judgments. In the result we find no merit in the appeal of the State. The same is accordingly dismissed,” the CJI said while delivering a 51-page verdict.
The 2022 ruling had upheld the validity of the 1992 amendment to the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, and directed that land reserved for common purposes by applying a pro-rata cut had to be used exclusively by gram panchayats for present and future village needs. The verdict had also barred re-partition of such land among proprietors.
That decision effectively required village commons to be returned to panchayats, with the management and control of such lands—including leasing for the benefit of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and non-proprietors—vested in local bodies.
By setting aside those findings, the bench restored the legal position affirmed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court two decades ago. “We have therefore no hesitation in holding that no error could be noticed in the impugned judgment and final order of the full bench of the high court… lands which have not been earmarked for any specific purpose do not vest in the gram panchayat or the State,” the Supreme Court held.
The matter stemmed from a batch of appeals challenging the 2003 high court decision. While the 2022 ruling had tilted control in favor of panchayats, Tuesday’s order reinstates proprietors’ ownership of lands that were not designated for common use during consolidation exercises.
