The main legal point established in the judgment is that the petitioners were not eligible for alternative plots under the Scheme of 1961 and Section 21 of the DDA Act due to the availability of plots in their spouses' names when their land was acquired.

JUDGMENT

Chandra Dhari Singh, J. - The instant civil writ petitions will be disposed of by way of this common judgment. The petitions have been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India on behalf of the petitioners, seeking writ, order or direction to quash and set aside rejection/impugned orders/letters issued on their applications for allotment of alternative plots by the respondent no. 3/SDM concerned. The petitioners are further seeking directions to the respondents for allotment of residential plot in lieu of acquisition of their land acquired under the provisions of the Delhi Development Authority Act, 1957 (hereinafter 'DDA Act'). The details of the corresponding writs and the rejection/impugned orders/letters are listed hereunder:-

2. The petitioners were the owners of land admeasuring in Revenue Estate of Village Dhool Siras, Delhi. A public notice was issued intimating and inviting objections to change the use from rural to residential/commercial zone of land admeasuring 1996 hectares bounded by Oil pipe line in North East, Rewari Railway Line in South East, Bijwasan Road in South and Najafgarh Drain in West and Najafgarh Road in North which included the area of Revenue Estate of Village Dhool Siras.

3. The respondents acquired the land under the provisions of the DDA Act and vide Notification no. F10(30)/96/L&B/LA/13417 dated 13th December 2000 was issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 with respect to the area of Village Dhool Siras. Possession of the said land was taken over by the Land Acquisition Collector (hereinafter 'LAC') and handed over to DDA on 20th August 2002 before the Award in lieu of the acquisition was notified. Subsequently, on 24th October 2002, Award No. 27/2002-2003 was announced by the LAC and the awarded market value for Block A and Block B was valued at Rs. 13.82 lakhs per acre and Rs. 12.32 Lakhs per acre, respectively. Compensation in lieu of the acquisition of land was paid to the petitioners by the DDA.

4. Thereafter, the petitioners applied to the Land & Building Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, for allotment of an alternative plot for the land acquired by the DDA, vide application dated 30th June 2003 by petitioner Naresh Kumar, 29th April 2003 by petitioner Sube Singh, 13th November 2003 by petitioners Dayanand and Phool Singh. In the meantime, while the concerned LAC was neither sanctioning nor rejecting the applications of the petitioners for alternative residential plot, they, along with other villagers, filed W.P. (C) 5553/2008 seeking directions to the respondents to sanction plot in the name of the petitioners therein. The said writ was disposed of with liberty to the petitioners for seeking remedy against the respondents with the observation that the requests of the petitioners were already decided by the respondents.

5. Vide letter dated 6th May 2019 and 4th November 2019, the petitioners' applications for allotment of residential plot were rejected, relying upon the Scheme of DDA for allotment of alternative plot and 'Control of land values in the Urban Areas of Delhi- Acquisition, development and disposal of land' dated 2nd May 1961 (hereinafter 'Scheme of 1961') and subsequent decisions with respect to the Scheme as well as citing the reason that the entire land of the petitioners was not acquired. The petitioners are before this Court assailing the rejection orders/letters issued by respondent no. 3.

SUBMISSIONS

6. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners submitted that the impugned orders/letters dated 6th May 2019 and 4th November 2019 rejecti