Punjab and Haryana High Court refuses to stop land acquisition for Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway

The Rs 40,000 crore expressway is proposed to be 669 kilometres, 4 lane access controlled green field expressway. It will reduce the travel time from Delhi to Chandigarh to 2 hours and Delhi to Amritsar to 4 hours. This is being planned in a way that will connect key Sikh religious sites including Shri Harmandir Sahib Amritsar to culminate at the holy shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi in Katra.

Appearing for NHAI, Senior Advocate Chetan Mittal with Advocate Abhilaksh Gaind (Nodal Advocate for NHAI) contended that so far there is only one residential house of Darshan Singh, whose boundary wall is falling in the alignment of the project. The advocates stated that even the main structure of Darshan Singh’s house was outside the alignment of the project.

In respect to the boundary wall concerned, the NHAI counsels told the HC that supplementary award has been passed by the competent authority and in so far as other structures tube-well, bore-well etc., which are claimed to be existing by the petitioners, a table has been provided before the court, detailing some of the petitioners have not made any claims while for others claims had been passed in June/August, 2022.

Meanwhile, the counsel for petitioners stated taht their client were not aware of any supplementary award, which has been passed and neither have they received the compensation thereof. The counsel for the petitioners, in turn,also sought to raise other arguments and pleas challenging the very acquisition of land itself.

The NHAI counsels, in turn, informed the court that the petition is misleading and is contrary to the factual position. The HC was also informed about the national importance of the project, and the likely positive implications for Punjab and neighbouring states.

After considering detailed arguments of both sides, regarding the interim stay, the High Court clearly refused to entertain any plea for interim stay at this stage to halt the project. The division Bench of Justice Lisa Gill and Justice Ritu Tagore, in its order, said, “At this stage arguments were addressed qua interim relief. We do not find any ground whatsoever to grant any interim relief at this stage to scuttle the project.”