Chandigarh, June 16 -- Dismissing an appeal filed by the Panchkula Municipal Corporation against January 2024 orders of the court of the district collector which had recognised M/s Polo Hotels Ltd and its director Abhey Ram Dahiya as the owners of about 15 acres of disputed land in erstwhile Chowki village, the court of Ambala divisional commissioner held that the entitlement of the two entities in shamlat land (village commons) stands proved. The North Park Hotel in Panchkula is run by Polo Hotels Limited. Revenue officials said the divisional commissioner's court relied on revenue records and jamabandis which showed that the predecessors of Polo Hotel and its directors were co-sharers in the shamlat land and in cultivating possession before January 26, 1950. Such chunks fall within the exclusion contained in section 2(g)(viii) of the Punjab Village Common Land Act which states that shamlat deh does not include land that has been in the individual cultivating possession of co-sharers not exceeding their respective shares in that shamlat deh on or before the January 26, 1950, and, therefore, does not automatically vest in the gram panchayat. Hearing an executive appeal filed by the MC regarding the land ownership dispute between Polo Hotels and the Panchkula MC, the court of divisional commissioner, Sanjeev Verma, in its May 13 order affirmed the collector's findings that the share of the predecessors of Polo Hotel and Dahiya did not vest in the erstwhile Chowki gram panchayat and, therefore, could not be treated as an asset of the gram panchayat on the date the area was merged into the municipal corporation limits. The divisional commissioner's court, however, found merit in the MC's contention regarding mutation number 249 pertaining to about 3.26 acres (15 bigha and13 biswa) which purportedly was acquired by the government and for which the predecessors of Polo Hotel had received compensation. Holding that this aspect required further examination, the divisional commissioner directed the district collector to scrutinise the revenue records, acquisition proceedings and other relevant documents to determine the exact extent of land that should be deducted from the respondents' share. "Thus, the present appeal is disposed-off and the case is sent back to district collector to have a fresh look in light of the observations made above,'' the divisional commissioner wrote in his quasi-judicial order. Polo Hotels and its director had filed a suit in 2023 under Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act before district collector seeking declaration that 15 acres (72 bighas 3 biswas 6 biswansis) in the erstwhile Chowki village did not vest in gram panchayat or municipal corporation. They claimed ownership as successors and purchasers from the original proprietors of the village through various sale deeds. According to them, the land had been recorded since 1926 as 'shamlat deh hasab hissa mudaria paimana hakiyat', reflecting the proprietary rights of the village landowners. They alleged that after the enactment of the Punjab Village Common lands laws, the land was wrongly mutated in favour of the gram panchayat through a mutation of April 27, 1957. However, after the repeal of those enactments, another mutation restored the land and this entry was reflected in the 1974-75 jamabandi. It was also pleaded that the predecessors of Polo Hotel were in actual cultivating possession of the land in the shamlat deh khewat as per their share and they were not in possession excess to their share. Thus, the land does not vest in the gram panchayat. It was also pleaded that Polo Hotel had applied to the director, town and country planning, for grant of change of land use (CLU) which was granted to them and was in the knowledge of gram panchayat. The municipal corporation argued that erstwhile Chowki village was merged into municipal limits on March 17, 2010, and as per section 7 of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, all assets and liabilities of gram panchayat including the disputed land vested in the corporation as its successor. The MC also argued that the suit under section 13-A of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, was not maintainable as the district collector could only determine whether land vested in gram panchayat and had no jurisdiction to decide whether it vested in a municipal corporation. The MC contended that neither Polo Hotel nor its predecessors were in cultivating possession of the land and revenue record before January 26, 1950 described it as Banjar Kadim, Banjar Jadid or Gair Mumkin land which vested in the gram panchayat under section 2(g)(i) of the Act....