IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Bhagwan Singh and others .....Petitioners Versus State of Haryana and others .....Respondents

1. The date when the judgment is reserved 28.01.2026 2. The date when the judgment is pronounced 11.02.2026 3. The date when the judgment is uploaded 13.02.2026

4. Whether only operative part of the Full judgment is pronounced or whether the full judgment is pronounced

5. The delay, if any of the pronouncement of Not applicable full judgment, and reasons thereof CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE DEEPAK SIBAL HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE LAPITA BANERJI Present : Mr. Rohan Moudgil, Advocate and Mr. Sandeep Sharma, Advocate for the petitioners.

Mr. Saurabh Mago, DAG, Haryana.

Ms. Kushaldeep Kaur, Advocate Ms. Ashna Singh, Advocate and Ms. Sharui Dadhwal, Advocate for respondent No.2-HSVP.

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DEEPAK SIBAL, J.

(1) Through the instant petition, the petitioners, relying on Section 101A of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (for short – 2013 Act), seek release of their acquired land in village Islampur, Tehsil and Distt.

Gurugram, Haryana primarily on the ground that such land cannot be utilized by the State for any public purpose.

(2) After hearing learned counsel for the parties and going through the record of the case, the following undisputed facts have emerged:-

Through notification dated 27.11.2003, issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short – 1894 Act) the State of Haryana expressed its intention to acquire 491.78 acres of land in Distt. Gurugram; such acquisition was for development of residential, commercial and institutional area in Sector 48, Gurugram; the petitioners’ land, which is the subject matter of the instant petition (hereinafter referred to as the ‘land in question’) was included in the aforesaid notification but the petitioners did not file any objection under Section 5-A of 1894 Act; on 24.11.2004, notification under Section 6 of 1894 Act was issued by the State of Haryana acquiring 457.86 acres of land, which included the land in question; thereafter, the Land Acquisition Collector, Gurugram (for short – the LAC), determined the payable compensation in lieu of the acquired land; though there were several awards passed in this regard but the award which pertained to the land in question was dated 22.09.2006; through Rapat Rojnamcha No.170 dated 22.11.2006 the State took possession of the entire acquired land which included the land in question; the determined compensation payable to the petitioners for acquisition of their land was then tendered by the State in a separate account being maintained by the LAC; such compensation was not withdrawn by the petitioners; rather, the petitioners/ their predecessor-in- interest approached this Court through CWP No.3613 of 2006 to challenge the aforesaid notifications issued by the State under Sections 4 and 6 of the

1894 Act; the ground taken by the petitioners was of discrimination which was considered and rejected by a Division Bench of this Court through judgment dated 09.04.2008; the petitioners did not challenge such judgment allowing it to attain finality; after about 09 years the petitioners/their predecessor-in-interest again knocked the doors of this Court through CWP No.28056 of 2017 through which they relied on Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act to seek a direction from this Court for declaring the notifications, through which the petitioners’ land was acquired, to have lapsed; a Division Bench of this Court accepted the petitioners’ claim and resultantly, through judgment dated 29.01.2018, declared the acquisition of the petitioners’ land to have lapsed; the State of Haryana challenged the judgment of the Division Bench dated 29.01.2018 before the Supreme Court which SLP, after conversion to a civil appeal being Civil Appeal No.4537 of 2024, was allowed by the Supreme Court on 22.03.2024 resulting of in the setting aside of the judgment of this