JUDGMENT :

JASGURPREET SINGH PURI, J.

1. The present Civil Writ Petition has been filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India seeking issuance of a writ in the nature of certiorari for setting aside the order dated 19.02.2026 (Annexure P-25) passed by the Statutory Arbitrator/Divisional Commissioner, Patiala (appointed under Section 3G(5) of the National Highway Act, 1956), wherein the petitioner has been denied the opportunity to cross-examine respondents No.1 and 2 despite the fact that the learned Arbitrator had permitted the said respondents to tender their evidence by way of affidavit as RW-Ashok Kumar Garg (respondent No.1) and RW-1/A-Gurmukh Singh (respondent No.2), with a further prayer to issue appropriate directions to respondent No.5-Arbitrator not to proceed further or pronounce the award during the pendency of the present petition.

2. Mr. Kanwalvir Singh Kang, learned counsel for the petitioner- NHAI while stating the brief facts of the case submitted that the petitioner- NHAI acquired land situated in different villages in the year 2020 for the purpose of widening (four/six laning) of roads. Thereafter, an award was passed by the Competent Authority for Land Acquisition (CALA) on 27.09.2021. The petitioner-NHAI thereafter approached the statutory Arbitrator appointed under Section 3G(5) of the National Highways Act and the arbitration proceedings commenced on 21.12.2022, which are pending since then. On 18.03.2024, the respondents-landlosers filed their claims before the learned Arbitrator, which were thereafter clubbed together.

3. The learned Arbitrator on 19.07.2024 reserved the award but before the pronouncement of the award, respondent No.1 filed a writ petition before this Court bearing No.CWP-33483-2024, titled Ashok Kumar Garg versus Union of India and others by contending that the mandate of the learned Arbitrator had already expired as he did not adhere to the timeline stipulated under the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’). A Coordinate Bench of this Court after issuing notice of motion in the aforesaid petition passed an interim order dated 20.12.2024 (Annexure P-6) directing that in the meanwhile, passing of the final award shall remain stayed. The aforesaid writ petition filed by respondent No.1 was thereafter withdrawn on 12.08.2025 vide Annexure P-8 with liberty to file a fresh petition with better particulars.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioner-NHAI submitted that there was another writ petition bearing No.CWP-1554-2025 filed by some of the landlosers, although not connected with the subject matter of the present petition, whereby a Coordinate Bench of this Court vide Annexure P-9 dated 24.12.2025 while taking note of the pendency of a large number of statutory arbitral proceedings under Section 3G(5) of the National Highways Act passed general directions pertaining to both the States of Punjab and Haryana, in which timeline was fixed for deciding the arbitration cases and in this way, even the present case of arbitration was required to be decided on the basis of the directions so issued. In the aforesaid general directions, it was so directed that all the pending arbitration cases upto the year 2020 shall be disposed of on or before 28.02.2026 and those cases instituted during the years 2021 to 2023 shall be disposed of within the next three months i.e. by 30.06.2026 and in this way, the present arbitral proceedings pending before the statutory Arbitrator was required to be disposed of by 30.06.2026. He further submitted that in the later part of the aforesaid order passed by the Coordinate Bench of this Court vide Annexure P-9, it was also directed that in all the arbitration cases where the arguments have been heard and judgments have been reserved for more than one month, the final outcome be pronounced on or before 28.02.2026 by all the Arbitrators throughout the States of Punjab and Haryana.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner-NHAI su