JUDGMENT

Anup Jairam Bhambhani, J. The essential question that arises for consideration in the present matters is whether the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, now the North Delhi Municipal Corporation ("Municipal Corporation" for short) can widen a road by utilising a parcel of land from a plot owned by a private party, without acquiring such land and without paying any compensation to the owner. A relevant consideration, in the context of which the question must be answered, is that the land is situate in what was to begin with an `unauthorised colony', which was subsequently `regularised' under a regularisation policy of the Central Government.

2. There are three petitioners before this court, in three separate writ petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India; and these three petitioners claim to be owners of plots of lands from which a total area of about 450 square feet ("subject land" for short) has been sought to be carved-out and taken-over to be used to widen a road that runs through the colony from its existing 65 feet Right-of-Way (RoW) to 100 feet RoW. The contesting respondent in the three petitions is the Municipal Corporation. Although in W.P. (C)