CWP No.7718 of 2008

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT

CHANDIGARH.

C.W.P.No. 7718 of 2008

Date of decision 9 .5.2008

Shakuntala Yadav and others

...Petitioners

Versus

State of Haryana and others

... Respondents.

CORAM:

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE M.M. KUMAR

HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE SABINA

Present:

Mr. Sanjay Kaushal,Advocate for the petitioners

M.M.KUMAR, J.

This order shall dispose of Civil Writ Petition Nos 7706 and

7718 of 2008 as common question of law is involved in both the petitions.

For the purposes of this judgement, facts are being taken from CWP

No.7718 of 2008

The petitioners have approached this Court for quashing order

dated 28.3.2008 ( Annexure P.10) passed by the High Powered Committee

through its Chairman, Mini Secretariat, Chandigarh. The Committee was

appointed on the basis of an order passed by this Court in CWP No.10845

of 2004 decided on 16.7.2005. The petitioners had earlier filed CWP

No.10294 of 2004 and that petition was disposed of in terms of order dated

16.7.2005 passed in CWP No. 10845 of 2004. The claim of the petitioners

for release of her land from acquisition has been rejected after granting

personal hearing to them.

It is pertinent to mention that land belonging to the petitioners

alongwith others was intended to be acquired by notification dated

CWP No.7718 of 2008

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27.1.2003 ( Annexure P.1) issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition

Act, 1894 (for brevity 'the Act') and declaration dated 5.12.2003

( Annexure P.4) issued under Section 6 of the Act. The award has also been

announced on 12.3.2004 ( Annexure P.7) . For quashing the afore-

mentioned notification and award, the petitioner had earlier filed CWP

No.10294 of 2004 which was disposed of in terms of the directions issued

on 16.7.2005 in CWP No.10845 of 2004. Accordingly the High Powered

Committee has considered the case of the petitioners. It has been

highlighted that possession of the land was taken by the Haryana Urban

Development Authority on 12.3.2004 when the award was also announced.

The possession, however, could not be taken on account of interim order of

stay issued in the case of the petitioner on 15.7.2004 in CWP No.10294 of

2004 which was filed on 13.7.2004. In pursuance to the directions issued by

this Court, the High Powered Committee had rejected the claim as is evident

from the perusal of paras 6,7 and 8 which reads thus:

“ In compliance of the Hon'ble High Court's order in CWP

No.10845 of 2004, the said committee gave the applicant an

opportunity of personal hearing on 30.1.06, 22.2.06, 8.3.06,

5.4.06, 3.5.06, 19.5.06, 5.7.06, 4.8.06, 15.9.06. Sh. A.P.Setia,

Advocate appeared on behalf of the petitioner in CWP

No.10294 of 204, he produced a typed copy of letter dated

21.12.1981 which was claimed to be from the Finance Minister,

Haryana and he requested that his land be released on the basis

of the direction given in the letter. The committee desired that

the original letter be produced before the Committee, but he

could not submit the same document before the committee.

CWP No.7718 of 2008

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The petitioner has requested for release of 1.23 acres

land falling in khasra No. 23///8/1, 8/2,9/2, 12/2, 13/1 in village

Sahaul. The award of this khasra number was announced on

12.3.2004. The possession of the land was given vide rapat

no.395 dated 12.3.2004 to HUDA on the same date.

In fact the petitioner had two pockets of land measuring

1.23 acres falling in khasra No. 23//8/1, 8/2.,9/2 12/3, 13/1 and

0.25 acres falling in khasra No. 23//10/1. The applicants had

applied for change of land use of these khasra numbers for

setting up of information technology unit on 5.12.05 in the

office of Director, Town and Country Planning. The said

application was returned vide No. G 1721 AD(B) 2006/9881

dated 21.4.2006 mentioning that the applied land is under

acquisition and the applicants were asked to get the