DHARAM PAL Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners, who are 47 in number, alleged that they are poor Harijans and Kumhar by caste, had been allotted plots of about 100 square yards each (which are comprised in Rectangle No. 32, Killa Nos. 17 and 18, Rectangle No. 41, Killa Nos. 21 and 11/2) under the 20-Point Programme of the Government of India, in order to rehabilitate them. It has been further alleged in the writ petition that most of the petitioners have constructed their houses on the said plots and are living there with their families. The plots were transferred to them by registered deeds and mutations were also accordingly sanctioned in favour of each of the petitioners.

(2.) It has been further averred in the petition that in the year 1983, a notification was issued for the acquisition of the land in dispute alongwith some other land. The petitioners filed objections against the said acquisition and according to them the matter rested there. Again, on 27th August, 1987, a notification was issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter called the Act), seeking to acquire the land belonging to the petitioners along with some other land for a public purpose, namely, for the development and utilization of the land for a City Centre, Gurgaon, in Sector 29 by the Urban Estate Department. The objections of the petitioners under Section 5-A of the Act were rejected and notification under Section 6 of the Act was issued.

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the petitioners had been allotted small pieces of land under 20-Point Programme to rehabilitate them and since most of the petitioners have constructed houses on those small pieces of land, the same should not have been acquired by the Government, especially when it had issued instructions that the constructed area would not be acquired. The learned counsel for the petitioners relied on a Single Bench judgment of this Court in Mohinder Singh Sharma and others v. State of Haryana and others, 1988 2 RRR 502