In their petition, taken up by Justice H.S. Brar and Justice V.M. Jain, Ujjagar Singh and others had sought the quashing of the notice dated May 25 issued by the gram panchayat of Aakri village.

They also sought directions to the gram panchayat to comply with the "statutory resolution passed by it under the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act".

The resolution, according to the petitioners, had allowed chakotedars to continue cultivating the land under their possession "on the payment of Rs 10 per year per acre over and above the total amount being paid by them during the last years as chakota.

The counsel for the petitioners submitted that the petitioners "came in possession of the land as chakotedars on the payment of chakota amount, as after the consolidation, the land was treated as bachat land of gram panchayat".

He added that the gram panchayat, on the instructions of the district development and panchayat officer, issued a notice to the petitioner to vacate the land within three days "otherwise 20 times of chakota will be recovered from them".