In the Year 2011 Late Sh. Bir Singh, a senior citizen, more than 80 years old retired teacher, the resident of village- Majara (Hissar) approached me in Supreme Court campus, in connection with the encroachment of village common land of his his village. I was very impressed with his zeal to search me as he had not approached through any contact but just by general search, as he came to know that I had filed an Application as an intervenor in a pending case in Supreme Court for removal of illegal encroachments from the village common lands. He told me that by and large the entire land preserved for common use had been illegally encroached by some persons and in more than 200 cases the competent authority had already passed orders for eviction, but even after attaining finality the orders remained unimplemented. And, he had been pursuing the cases against encroachments since the year 200. Initially, I advised him to write to the concerned authorities for removing encroachments. However, when no action was taken by the concerned authorities, rather surprisingly, the then Deputy Commissioner Balbir Singh Malik illegally used his influence to put pressure on Gram Panchayat for passing resolutions for sale of common land to the encroachers. When nothing happened I advised him to file writ petition in the Punjab & Haryana High Court. He requested me to file petition in the HC. But I told him that it was not viable for me to travel to Chandigarh from Delhi, as at that time I was based in Delhi. But he agreed to bear my travel expenses; apart from a decent fee, so I agreed. In the year 2013 the HC directed the competent authority including Deputy Commissioner to remove the illegal encroachments. But when no encroachment was removed the old aged person again approached me and complained that nothing had happened despite the directions of HC. I avoided filing Contempt Petition as I could not dare to demand fee from him, as apparently the earlier litigation expenses did not yield any meaningful result. I advised the old aged person to file representations and I even issued Legal Notice to the Deputy Commissioner, but all in vain. Ultimately, in the month of October, 2015 I filed petition for contempt of court at no loss no profit bases. Even after issuance of notice in contempt petition by HC nothing moved and I again had to hear from the old aged person that, "Your legal process in impotent, it cant give birth to justice" During hearing of the contempt petition I requested Justice Rakesh Jain to give short date as the Petitioner was at the advance stage of life and justice would be futile if he couldn't see it within his lifetime. But J. Rakesh Jain replied jokingly replied, "This pending case would keep on giving more breaths to your old aged client" and granted routine long adjournment. Then in the year 2016(I dont remember date) one day I received a call from Bir Singh known as Master Ji that he was hospitalized for old aged ailments and asked me 'Is there any hope for justice' I couldn't say anything except that 'मास्टर जी जो कानूनी तौर पर सम्भव है वो मै कर रहा हूँ! मैं लठ लेकर आपके गाँव में आकर कब्ज़े नहीं हटा सकता'
Today, there was hearing of the Contempt Petition. Now, more than the actual relief of removal of encroachment, I am interested in fixing the accountability of the officers who did not take any action on the directions of the High Court. Two IAS and two BDPOs did not take any action at all and some encroachments were removed only after when Justice Rakesh Jain directed the DC Hisar to personally appear before the High Court. Three judges J. Rakesh Jain, Jaswant Singh and now J. Daya Chaudhary have heard the contempt petition, but nobody is ready to fix the accountability of the lethargic or I would say corrupt officers. All have shown undue sympathy towards the corrupt bureaucracy. Earlier, when I insisted for accountability a judge threatened to admit the matter, which means that the matter will be heard after 10-15 years. Today, when I argued for accountability, J. Daya Chaudhary asked me, "By the way who are you?. Have you not encroached the common land?" ('You: mean clients) I replied, "No I've not committed any encroachment and even if I have done so I need to be removed" Then J. Daya Chaudhary asked the Advocate for Haryana Govt. to inquire whether the Petitioners are also in encroachment of the village common land. And, the matter is again 9th time adjourned for 16.02.2018. The last words of late master Bir Singh still tinkle in my ears:
"Your legal process in impotent, it cant give birth to justice" "Is there any hope for justice?"
The Details of Proceedings
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