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9. Cleaning through the aforesaid relevant material contained in the Settlement and Land Administration Manuals which continue to apply in Himachal Pradesh, and the judicial dicta, the position which emerges is that Abadi Deh, that is, the inhabited site of the village, consists of sites on which the houses of the members of the brotherhood or proprietary body are usually built close together, small plots attached or annexed thereto which are used for penning the cattle, storing manure or stacking straw, empty or vacant sites unoccupied by any individual, common plots set apart for public use such as the chaupal or hujra, for dharamshalas, mosques, graveyards, burning ghats, tanks, wells etc. and public paths or ways. The village site is measured in one number for the purposes of the revenue records and the entry in the column of ownership and occupancy will be "Abadi Deh". The Abadi is almost always excluded from the operation of the Land Revenue Act, except so far as may be necessary for the record, recovery and administration of village cesses. The proprietary body or brotherhood holds Abadi Deh in joint ownership and it is treated as the common property of the community. Still, however, generally speaking, the greater part of Abadi Deh is in most cases indivisible and members of the community cannot call for a redistribution of the area or for a partition according to the khewat or ancestral shares. The members of the community, who have built their houses or ghers in the portion of the village site for long with the assent or acquiescence of their co-sharers, cannot be ousted from the sites, on which they have built, in the guise of partition. So also the portions of the land set apart by common consent for public use cannot be brought into any scheme of redistribution or partition at the instance of any member of the community. If the village site in which such portions are comprised is assessed to land revenue, which would be in a very rare case, the revenue authorities may determine the extent and manner to and in which the co-sharers may make use thereof and the proportion in which expenditure, if any, incurred thereon and the profits, if any, derived therefrom are to be borne by and divided by those persons or any of them. However, so far as empty or open sites in or about the village, unoccupied by the members of the community and not used by them for any public purpose, are concerned, whether' they are enclosed by shrubs, bushes etc. or not, any member(s) of the proprietary body can call for the partition of such vacant or open site according to the rule applicable in a particular case which, more often than not, determines the share of each proprietor therein according to the land revenue paid by him.

10. The disputed land in the present case, as earlier found, is a site forming part of Abadi Deh. As such, the members of the village community, including the petitioner, are the joint owners thereof and they have a proprietary interest therein. Had it been a vacant site and otherwise capable of partition, any member of the community could have called for its inclusion along with such or similar other plots in a partition according to the respective shares of the proprietors. It is not in dispute, however, that the land is in occupation of the petitioner who has constructed a shed over it. Whither or not the petitioner is in the lawful occupation thereof with the assent or acquiescence of the co-sharers and has acquired any right thereto by long prescriptive user is not a matter which calls for determination herein since the only question to be considered is whether the site is a "public place" within the meaning of Section 3, Sub-section (1), Clause (y) of the Act. Having regard to its nature and characteristics and the ordinary incident attached thereto, it is difficult to conceive how the disputed land can be regarded as a space which is not private property and which is open to use or enjoyment of the public. It is not anyone's case, even if that be regarded as relevant, that by common consent the disputed land was earmarked by the body of proprietors as a common plot to be used by the community for any of the public purposes, such as, for example, chaupal, dharamshalas, mosques, graveyards, burning-ghats, tanks, wells, public paths, etc. Since the disputed land forming part of Abadi Deh bears the impress of the joint property of the members of the village community in which they have a proprietary interest, it does not answer the description and satisfy the requirements of a "public place" as defined in Section 3, Sub-section (1), Clause (y) of the Act. Under the circumstances, the initiation of the proceedings against the petitioner under Section 19 of the Act and ordering his eviction from the disputed land in the course of such proceedings is wholly without power, authority and jurisdiction.