Four decades of delay: 150 landless Dalit families still await promised plots in Delhi’s Vasant Kunj

The matter has been in court for more than 30 years, and the Delhi High Court said almost a decade and a half ago that the intended beneficiaries should get their due. In 2016, following a direction of the Supreme Court, the HC began suo motu contempt proceedings against the authorities.

The government has told the court that the allotted land is not available. In lieu of the plots, the 153 families of Rangpuri have been offered a small flat each almost 35 km away – or, if they prefer, Rs 17 lakh.

On November 10, a Bench of HC Justices Nitin Wasudeo Sambre and Anish Dayal deprecated the government’s attempts to “stall or make redundant” judicial decisions of the SC and HC “by taking recourse to administrative decisions”. But the court also suggested that the allottee-petitioner “should not be rigid, and be open to considering a reasonable proposal” by the government.

On November 17, counsel for Delhi government senior advocate Sanjay Jain informed the court that “a meeting is scheduled to be held with the Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor on 21st November 2025, to resolve the issue”, given that contempt proceedings have been continuing for around a decade.

In lieu of the plots, the 153 families of Rangpuri have been offered a small flat each almost 35 km away – or, if they prefer, Rs 17 lakh.

Sources who were present at the meeting on Friday said no conclusion could be reached.

Litigation began in 1993 after Nand Kishore, a beneficiary who is now 67 years old, moved the HC through his lawyer Rakesh Saini seeking possession of the plot allotted to him under the Prime Minister’s Twenty Point Programme (TPP) in 1983. The scheme, launched by Indira Gandhi’s government in 1975, aimed to provide land to landless famili-es from marginalised sections.

In 2011, a single judge of the HC ruled in Kishore’s favour, recording that the government has both a “legal obligation” and a “social responsibility” to allot land to “landless residents of the Village Rangpuri for dwelling units”.

However, since the allotment did not have prior sanction as required under the Delhi Panchayat Raj Rules, the court directed the authorities to locate land that could be allotted to achieve the purpose of the TPP.

An appeal against the order was dismissed in July 2012, and the administration was given three months to comply.

In November 2012, the government issued a notice inviting objections from the public to the acquisition of land including the area where the Rangpuri families were allotted plots. The land, in the villages of Malikpur Kohi and Rangpuri, was needed to build government staff quarters, the Delhi government said.

In January 2013, the SC rejected the government’s appeal against the HC’s July 2012 order, imposed costs, and said that if the single judge’s direction was not implemented, the HC “shall be free to initiate proceedings” under the Contempt of Courts Act. After contempt proceedings began in January 2016, the administration told the HC that no land was available in Rangpuri, and instead offered 25 bigha and 5 biswa in the neighbouring Rajokri.

In March 2017, the Delhi administration changed its mind and informed the court that “the land has been identified in village Khera Dabar” in Najafgarh, and that “a Committee shall be constituted within…one week to determine the eligibility of the residents of the village Rangpuri who are entitled for allotment…”.

In 2018, the administration told the HC that of the 173 landless Scheduled Caste families identified for the scheme by the village panchayat in 1980, 153 families were eligible, and that “the land belonging to any other village cannot be allotted to the residents/ Claimants of village Rangpuri.”

In October 2024, the administration informed the HC that “since no land is available with the [Delhi] government…and the claimants are…in the EWS category, as a policy decision…[they] are offered 153 EWS flats at Pocket 4, Sector G-7, Narela having plinth area of around 35.50 sq mtrs…, [or] an ex gratia payment of compensation to the tune of Rs 17 lakhs”.

In March this year, Kishore petitioned the Delhi HC asking that the acquisition of the Malikpur Kohi and Rangpuri land be set aside, and if that was not feasible, they be allotted 120-sq-yard plots in Rajokri out of the 25 bighas that the administration had once said was available. The matter will be heard again on December 1.

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