IMPORTANT POINT
An executive action, if within the guidelines and reasonable is not liable to be interfered with.

JUDGMENT

Tarun Chatterjee, J.—

1. Delay condoned.

2. Leave granted.

3. These appeals by special leave have arisen from a judgment dated 14th of December, 2006 of a Division Bench of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh passed in CWP No. 2479/2006 whereby the High Court had set aside the Notifications dated 11th of November, 2002 and 12th of November, 2003 issued under Sections 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, (in short ‘the Act’) respectively so far as the acquired lands of the claimant-respondents are concerned, subject to certain conditions to be fulfilled by them.

4. The facts in appeal arising out of S.L.P. No. 7099/2007 are sufficient to decide the questions of law that have arisen in these appeals. In that view of the matter, let us narrate the facts involved in SLP)No.7099 of 2007 in a nutshell and the decision of which will also govern the other Special Leave Petitions [Appeals].

5. On 15th of November, 2002, a notification under Section 4 of the Act was issued by the State Government of Haryana for the purpose of acquisition of lands situated in Village Khandsa, Tehsil and District Gurgaon for the purpose of development of a corporate complex for industrial, institutional, commercial and recreational purposes. The respondent no.1, being one of the owners of the notified acquired lands, filed objections under Section 5 of the Act, for exclusion of their lands. The Haryana Government, later on, that is on 12 th of November, 2003 issued a Notification under Section 6 of the Act, in respect of the aforementioned lands declaring that the lands notified were needed by the Government for a public purpose.

6. On 16th of July, 2005, the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh disposed of the petitions filed by respondent no.1 and others, directing that the grievances of the land owners be considered by a High Powered Committee, constituted to look into whether the lands of the owners concerned could be released from acquisition. The High Powered Committee submitted its consolidated report containing its observations and recommendations to the State Government on 10th of November, 2005. The Committee recommended the acquisition of the lands of respondent no.1 on the basis of the parameters of evaluation formulated for the same purpose. On the basis of the same parameters, some other lands were released, land belonging to M/s Orient Crafts being one such plot. The recommendations of the Committee were to be applicable to all such cases pending before the High Court and they would not be disturbed till further orders of the Government. Aggrieved by the recommendations of the High Powered Committee, respondent no.1 filed a writ petition before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana contending that the said report was liable to be quashed as the policy of pick and choose was adopted in the matter of releasing lands and that the acquisition of lands was discriminatory. The High Court concluded that the case of respondent no.1 was on a better footing than that of M/s Orient Crafts since a perusal of the site plan shows that the land of M/s Orient Crafts which is similarly placed with the land of the respondent no.1, does not contain any structure unlike that of the land of the respondent no.1 containing a pucca structure. Moreover, no nullah flows through the land of M/s Orient Crafts as averred by the appellant Corporation. As such, the land of M/s Orient Crafts was held to be wrongly released from acquisition amounting to discrimination against respondent no.1. Accordingly, the High Court ordered the release of the land belonging to respondent no.1 on the following grounds:

i. That they will maintain the green belt as desired by the Department which is essentially required to lay the infrastructure.

ii. That they would pay the proportionate internal and external charges to the Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (in short the ‘HSIDC’) as and when it is required by the authorities.

7. Be