BALWINDER KAUR Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The challenge in this petition filed under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution is to the notifications dated 15.06.2010 (P-3) issued under Section 4 read with Section 17 and dated 01.09.2010 (P-4) issued under Section 6 respectively of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short "the Act") as also the award announced on 17.2.2011 (P-2) acquiring amongst other land the land of the petitioner in Khasra No.37//23(8-0), 40//3 (4-0) admeasuring 12-0 Kanals (1.50 acres) situated at Village Jhall Thikriwal, Tehsil and District Kapurthala, Punjab.

(2.) In the alternative, the prayer is made to quash the acquisition to the extent that the land is required for construction of road, the use of which has been diverted for other use of the Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation Limited the beneficiary of the acquisition. Since the land had been acquired invoking urgency clause under Section 17 of the Act, the provisions of Section 5-A stand dispensed with. It has been sought to be explained from the site plan (P-6) and the revised layout plan of integrated mixed use of Industrial Park at Kapurthala (P-7) that a portion of the land depicted in P-6 comprising 1.5 acres falls in the 100 ft. wide road bifurcating the land holding of the petitioner on either side of the road. The layout plan discloses that the 1.5 acre area to be acquired falls squarely on the road.

(3.) In the reply filed by the respondent-Corporation, the case set up by the petitioner has been refuted in Para 7 of the written statement which reads as under:- "7. That the contents of this paragraph are denied being wrong and incorrect. The respondent No.2 has acquired the land for construction of approach road 100 ft. wide for the Modern Jail at Kapurthala from Kapurthala to Subhanpur road and said land has been acquired for this purpose. It is pertinent to mention here that the road passes through khasra No.37/23 and in between Khasra No.40/3/1 is the pocket which becomes enclosed in the answering respondent(PSIEC) land. Therefore, to leave this Khasra is not justified as all around it the land of the answering respondent(PSIEC) and by leaving this area the planning of this area cannot be possible. Therefore, 1.5 acre land was acquired by the respondent No.2. The land under 40/3/1 falls in the industrial pocket. The part of Khasra No.37/23 falls under the road and the rest of the land has been acquired to straighten the boundary of land of answering respondent(PSIEC) already acquired for the setting up of mix use industrial Park at Kapurthala at the time of acquisition. It was not considered that the area falling under khasra No.37/23/1 will be a part of commercial pocket. A copy of the plan is annexed as Annexure R-4/1."