In Brief
The Supreme Court upheld amendments to the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961, which vest land reserved for common purposes in Gram Panchayats. The Court held that land reserved by pro-rata deduction from proprietors' holdings during consolidation operations constitutes an irreversible acquisition protected under Article 31-A as agrarian reform. Such land cannot be re-partitioned amongst proprietors merely because it remains unutilized, as 'common purposes' is a dynamic concept evolving with village needs. When municipal limits are extended, vesting of such land in municipalities is a statutory succession, not a fresh acquisition requiring compensation. The Court rejected High Court findings that only management and control (not ownership) vested in Panchayats for such lands, and affirmed that the 1961 Act provides the exclusive forum for deciding disputes over rights in such land.
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