Important Judgments upon Land Acquisition in India

HON'BLE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA UPON KALKA- PINJORE PROJECT- HARYANA
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) No(s).21786-
21788/2010
(From the judgement and order dated 06/04/2010 in CWP
No.6155/2010,CWP No.6205/2010 dated 12/05/2010 in CWP No.20019/2009
of The HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH)
RAVINDRA SINGH ETC.ETC. Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
STATE OF HARYANA & ORS. Respondent(s)
(With prayer for interim relief and office report )
Date: 19/04/2012 These Petitions were called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE G.S. SINGHVI
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SUDHANSU JYOTI MUKHOPADHAYA
For Petitioner(s)
Mr. Sanjay Bansal, Adv.
Mr. Yash Pal Dhingra,Adv.
For Respondent(s)
Mr. Manjit Singh, AAG
Mr. Tarjit Singh, Adv.
Mr. Kamal Mohan Gupta,
Ms. Naresh Bakshi,Adv. (Not present)
UPON hearing counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
These petitions are directed against order dated April 6, 2010 passed by the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court whereby the petitioners' challenge to the acquisition of their land was negatived.
While issuing notice on 13.8.2010, this Court had directed that status quo regarding possession of the
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subject matter of the special leave petitions shall be maintained by both the parties.
On 31.10.2011 and 24.1.2012, the Court gave direction to the respondents to file additional affidavits along with the details of the total land acquired as also the land released at various stages of the acquisition and even thereafter.
In compliance of the directions given by the Court, Shri S.S. Dhillon, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Urban Estates Department,Government of Haryana filed affidavits dated 2.3.2012 and 30.3.2012. A perusal of the affidavits reveal that Notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 was issued on 26.9.2007 for the acquisition of 809.74 acres of land. The declaration under Section 6(1) was issued on 25.9.2008 for 673.29 acres of land and the award was passed for 372.388 acres land and after passing of the award 72.3 acres of land was
released from acquisition. The lists of the persons in whose favour land was released show that most of them are builders or their collaborators. This gives an impression that in the guise of acquiring land for public purpose i.e. development of some of the sectors in Panchkula by the Haryana Urban Development Authority, the State Government misused the provisions of 1894 Act for the
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benefit of private companies and builders without complying with the procedure prescribed under Chapter VII of that Act. It is also borne out from the record that the
officer who filed affidavit before the High Court had deliberately omitted to place the facts and the records in correct perspective and, thereby, respondents had
succeeded in misleading the High Court in passing the impugned order. We are prima facie of the view that the entire acquisition proceeding deserve to be quashed. However, before passing any order in that regard, we deem it proper to order impleadment of all the persons, in whose favour land was released at different stages as parties to the special leave petitions. Learned counsel for the petitioner is directed to furnish the list of all such persons by tomorrow and also file amended cause title.
The Registry is directed to issue notice to the impleaded parties returnable in the first week of July, 2012.
With a view to avoid further complications in the matter, we direct the State of Haryana and its functionaries and also the impleaded respondents not to
undertake further constructions on the land which was acquired vide Notification dated 26.9.2007 read with the
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declaration dated 25.9.2008. This would mean that all the ongoing construction activities shall be stopped forthwith.
(Sukhbir Paul Kaur) (Phoolan Wati Arora)
Court Master Court Master

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