Supreme Court clears Mohali land acquisition obstacles

Disposing of the over six-year-old litigation,a three-member bench comprising Justice R V Raveendran,Justice R M Lodha and Justice T S Thakur has ruled that the exemption of the land under acquisition from the provisions of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act (PRTPDA),1995,does not suffers from any legal infirmity. Not rendering bad the acquisition under challenge for non-compliance with the provisions of the PRTPDA,the apex court also ruled that the absence of any rehabilitation measures does not render the acquisition in question legally bad.

Moreover,the SC bench upheld the Cabinet decision of the Punjab government to offer the benefit of Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) with prospective effect and rejected the demand of the landowners seeking the LPS benefit with retrospective effect.

“While the Knowledge City has been freed from litigation,the litigations pending with regard to land acquisition for Sectors 76 to 80 are also likely to be disposed of in the light of this judgment because they have also been filed on grounds similar to the ones on which the apex court has decided this case,” said Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) Chief Administrator (CA) Vivek Pratap Singh.

Punjab Urban Planning Development and Authority (PUDA) Senior Law Officer Harmel Singh said,“Not only will the old land acquisition litigations pertaining to Mohali and the entire Punjab be solved,this judgment has also paved the way for all future land acquisitions under similar provisions.”

However,the Supreme Court directed that if the appellants make applications under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act for reference of their claims for higher compensation before the concerned Collector (Land Acquisition) within a period of six weeks,the Collector shall make a reference to the competent civil court for determination of the compensation payable to the appellants.

The reference court shall on receipt of the reference expedite the disposal of the same,ordered the bench. The appeals were filed by Amarjit Singh,Mewa Singh and other owners of merely 20 acres of the total of 417.39 acres acquired in Sector 81 in 2004 for development of Knowledge City. Since the disputed land was scattered around in small parcels,vast areas of Knowledge City were locked under litigation.

According to plans,160 acres were allotted to the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research,83.89 acres to Biotechnology Park ,70 acres to the Indian School of Business and 35 acres each to the Institute of Nano-Science Technology and National Agir-Biotechnology Institute in Knowledge City.

Similarly,of the total 1,274 acres acquired for Sector 76-80 in 2001,the owners of around 10 per cent of the land had challenged the compulsory acquisition of their land,following which hundreds of allottees were awaiting possession of their plots. Various development works were also stuck in the area. Under similar provisions,688.89 acres of land was acquired for Sector 88-89.