Consider claim of Mohali residents according to the oustee policy,HC tells GMADA

In a snub to the authority,the bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and R P Nagrath has held that its “microscopic classification” to deny the residents residential plots does not stand “equality before law” (Article 14 of the Constitution).

The court remarked that “artificial grouping” was made by GMADA for denying residential plots to those whose land was acquired in 2004 for development of urban sectors in Mohali.

The petitioners had moved the High Court seeking quashing of letters-cum-orders issued on different dates in September/October,2011 whereby GMADA had rejected their claim for allotment of residential plots under the oustee policy.

The petitioners had also sought directions to GMADA to treat them on a par with other oustees of the same acquisition process and consequently allot them the plots of the size,which were due to them as per their entitlement.

The petitioners’ land situated in villages Mauli Baidwan,Chilla,Raipur Khurd,Kumbra and Manauli,tehsil and district SAS Nagar,Mohali,was acquired by Punjab through its Department of Housing and Urban Development vide a notification dated January 23,2004 of the Land Acquisition Act.

Soon after passing of compensation,the petitioners applied in 2007 for allotment of residential plots. The same was denied on the grounds that “there is no condition in the new Oustee Policy with regard to allotment of plots to the oustees,whose land have been acquired for Sector 81 and Water Treatment Plant,for SAS Nagar,Mohali,known as the Knowledge City”.

GMADA took the plea that the petitioners were not entitled to the allotment of residential plots for the reason that their land had been acquired for setting up of Sector 81 which was not a ‘residential sector’.

Setting aside the plea,the division bench ruled that the land of the petitioners was part and parcel of the big chunk of contiguous land measuring about 417 acres comprising different revenue villages which was acquired by Punjab through the same process.