HISAR: A family of farmers has taken the country’s Agriculture Minister to court. At stake is a small piece of land, barely five acres and the integrity of the minister, Mr. Bhajan Lal.
The farmers say that Mr. Bhajan Lal through a “fraudulent” exchange deed got their land transferred in his name. The deed specified that another piece of land belonging to the minister was to go to the farmers in lieu of their land. But, that never happened.
And, as a result, both pieces of land came to belong to Mr. Bhajan Lal on record.
The story began 27 years ago, when Mr. Bhajan Lal was still struggling to find his feet. Attar Singh and Bhajan Lal executed an exchange deed (No 355) at the office of the sub register, Hisar.
Attar Singh had given him general power of attorney to dispose of his land in whatever manner he saw fit. And, he was making the deal with Mr. Bhajan Lal on behalf of Dayal Singh.
That day on May 16, 1962 Dayal Singh lost his land. The exchange deed specified that 45 kanlas and 4 marlas of land belonging to Dayal Singh in Khara Barwala village would now be exchanged with 40 kanals of land belonging to Mr. Bhajan Lal in Mohabatpur village.
Dayal Singh’s sons have contended that Attar Singh never had a general power of attorney and the entire transaction took place behind their fathers back. Be that as it may, as far as the records were concerned, Dayal Singh’s land passed on to Mr. Bhajan Lal. But there was no exchange. For, Mr. Bhajan Lal’s land did not come to Dayal Singh.
Dayal Singh died on April 22 this year. His sons, Gurjant, Gurcharan and Angrej went to the patwari of their village, Khara Barwala, asking him to enter the mutation of inheritance in their favor. It was then, they say, that they learnt that the land was not in their father’s name at all. The patwari told them that 27 years ago their land had been transferred to Mr. Bhajan Lal thought mutation number 1158 to the village.
And it was not as if Mr. Bhajan Lal had just sat on the transaction. Through a series of complex manoeuvres and sale deeds, he had ultimately arranged things so that a part of the land on record now belongs to certain Mr, Ram Singh a part of it is registered in the name of one Mr. Ram Saurp and. some land is still in Mr. Bhajan Lal’s name, And what, meanwhile of the land that Mr. Bhajan Lal supposed to have passed on to Dayal Singh? Of course, this half of the transaction never took place and Dayal Singh’s sons say it could not have.
For one, that land that was supposed to have been given to Dayal Singh was a part of some joint Khewat and Mr. Bhajan Lal was not entitled to execute the exchange deed, they say.
Investigations also show that this land, that was supposed to have been passed on to Dayal Singh has been passing from person to person until it is now back with Mr. Bhajan Lal’s family. But, at no time has it been in possession of Dayal Singh.
In fact, Bhajan Lal sold the same piece of land that he had offered to Dayal Singh to his own munshi, Shiv Dayal for Rs 6,500. And some years later, Shiy Dayal for Rs 6,500. And some years later Shiv Dayal sold it back to Mr. Bhajan Lals, sons, Chander Mohan and Kuldip Singh for Rs 19,725.
And so as of today, Mr. Bhajan Lal’s sons own the land that their father has supposedly passed on to Dayal Singh 27 years ago, On the other hand, Dayal Singh’s sons are being told that they don’t own any land at all.
(This story appeared in the Indian Express recently. Mr. Bhajan Lal has reportedly threatened to ‘fix’ the paper and the reporter who did the story.).
Article extracted from this publication >> September 1, 1989
