HC issues show-cause notice to Panipat DC over contempt

PANIPAT: The Punjab and Haryana High Court has served a show-cause notice on Sumedha Kataria, Collector-cum-Deputy Commissioner, for not deciding a case of an alleged encroachment on gram panchayat land of Barauli village within the time period fixed by it.

Tribune News Service

Panipat, June 20

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has served a show-cause notice on Sumedha Kataria, Collector-cum-Deputy Commissioner, for not deciding a case of an alleged encroachment on gram panchayat land of Barauli village within the time period fixed by it.

A plant of PepsiCo has been set up on the land measuring 7 kanal and 8 marla on NH-1.

Advocate Ravinder Sharma of Barauli village said the gram panchayat had filed a case under Section 7 of the Punjab Village Common Land Act seeking eviction of Aradhana Soft Drinks Company from the panchayat land. The panchayat had also demanded that a penalty be imposed on the firm.

The court of the then Assistant Collector First Class had decided the case on January 30, 2009, in the favour of the gram panchayat, he said. Declaring that the land had been occupied illegally, the court had issued directions to get the land vacated within 15 days. The company was also directed to pay a penalty at the rate of Rs5,000 per acre per year till the land was vacated, Sharma added.

However, the company filed an appeal in the Collector’s court. On March 3, 2009, the then Collector-cum-DC had stayed the proceedings in the matter, he said.

On May 23, 2012, the Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO), Panipat, served a notice to the HR manager of the firm to vacate the land.

Pepsico India Holding Private Limited then moved the HC against the BDPO’s notice. On May 8, 2013, Justice Rajiv Bhalla and Justice Neha Mittal had directed the Collector, Panipat, to decide the appeal within two months from July 1, 2013.

But the then Collector had failed to decide the case within the set time frame, Sharma said.

Later, he filed a contempt petition in the HC through advocate Sukhdeep Parmar against Collector-cum-DC Sumedha Kataria. Parmar said on May 11 this year, Justice Rajiv Narain Raina issued a show-cause notice to Sumedha Kataria, Collector-cum-DC. She has been directed to reply to the notice on July 13.