By Col JC Sindhwani (Retd)
On 26 July which was also a fourth Saturday, a holiday in many government offices, was a crucial court hearing of a colleague. Also a soldier of same vintage, he asked if I could accompany him to the hearing. He said it was important as for the first time in 25 years he would see the person who has caused this property case to emerge and drag since the creation of Uttarakhand as a state. We chose to skip the Kargil Day Ceremony at Vijay Sthal and attended the hearing. I was very impressed to see the new court building and the court rooms.
At 11 a.m. the court began the hearing. My friend, call him Friend Soldier (FS), and I sat in the rear seats to see the proceedings. The opposite party, let’s call them ZB, who have created fake claims on my friend’s family property, were creating a ruckus outside as to who would represent their case. Reason, ZB had sold the fake papers of my friend’s property to a number of guys and collected ‘bayana amounts’ and given power of attorney to them to fight it out against FS, who has been in occupation of the property since its purchase by the family in the 1950s. Since the warring lawyers of ZB could not decide who would be her (ZB) lawyer, with PoA given to all and sundry, (for a fair amount of booty), the case was adjourned. This is how cases get piled up year after year, on flimsy, dubious, and easily solvable grounds. It only requires application of mind in such cases to solve them. To mind comes the famous filmy dialogue “Tariqe pe tariqe, tariqe pe tarirqe…” by Sonny Deol.
I will now briefly narrate the case of FS.
FS who is now 80 plus in age, and whom I have known since the family moved into their property, after purchasing from a prominent civil servant in the early ‘50s, had known no other permanent address since our schooldays, then joined the Army, serving more than 33 years. He saw action in 1962, 1965 and 1971 and took retirement in 1992. He settled down in the same family house and has had the same permanent home address ever since. The military service to ward off the enemy across the borders was over, and now a battle started with an unscrupulous custodian of our governing systems who created the problem. The internal enemy.
On the creation of separate Uttarakhand, this dubious Tehsildar, who chose to opt for UP and leave Dehradun, created this ZB group for ample consideration, and falsified documents showing FS property as theirs, based on records again fabricated and falsified by him. He moved on to UP to enjoy the spoils of this deal which got him promoted to SDM. He continued his malpractices there too and got Mention in Dispatches (newspapers). Got suspended, as per the papers. BUT the mischief he left behind here before moving out, has left our Friend Soldier, making rounds of the courts during his 60s, 70s and now in his 80s. Not a step towards the settlement and relief to the FS and punishment for the fraud gang of UP (ZB and collaborators).
Here I may mention that my friend approached the Zila Sainik Board, the Police setups like the SIT, the Right to Information channel, etc., to take the fraudsters to task. This was done after the then DM’s Court in 2002 had declared that the Tehsildar had no independent authority to entertain a claim to property duly recognised as that of the legitimate occupants, and that too after a period of more than 48 years, based on unverified, falsified papers. And this too after totally ignoring the property records kept with the Nagar Nigam, ever since. A case which would normally be settled through verification by a three judge bench, if so needed, to scrutinise the authenticity of our FS and family’s documents, has taken up almost 3 decades. That explains the reasons why cases pile up but never get solved. What holds back judges from seeing through the designs of frauds in such clearcut cases, and deliver bold decisions, we all wonder. No reason to delay absolute clear cases.
A side observation on similar systems failures or deficiencies, in our system of work if I may bring out is the total collapse of parliamentary functions, disruption throughout the sessions, no accountability for our Honourable Members, to the people who put them there. Never seen the troublemakers as cameras are not allowed to show them. WHY? Do they get pay cuts for non- functioning? Also never seen a single hooligan being ordered out of Parliament by the speakers, by the Marshals meant for such deeds. There is a limit to being a welfare, all tolerant and ignoring state. That’s why our systems need a deliberate analysis to put them back on track.
A nation aspiring for the third place among world economies, must take note of complete systems and not only a segment of governance. All systems demand reforms after a relook.
Oh, by the way after a long stay at the courts we visited the toilets for convenience and were horrified to see no water in the taps, paan spit all over including the choked wash basins, and Indian style latrines clogged, again due to no water. And extensive usage by the outstation litigants who come for full day stays, with upset body systems, needing some relief.
All it requires in this beautiful new court building is a supervisor with two sanitary workers, with required implements, to clean up the convenience setups. Once in the morning and once at closing time. Not a big effort!
(Col JC Sindhwani (Retd) is a resident of Dalanwala since Partition, whose family migrated from Sargodha. He was educated in SJA before joining the Army and retired in 1992.)
