News: Adopt system to stop registry of sale deeds of acquired land: Punjab & Haryana HC-20-09-2023
: In view of the nexus between the builders/colonizers and the department of Town and Country Planning Haryana, the Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the chief secretary (CS) Haryana to adopt a mechanism to ensure that sale deeds of acquired land may not be registered in future.
As per the orders, the CS has been told to requisition reports of acquired land and to issue specific directions to the department of revenue to update the relevant revenue record and to make such information available to all registrars/sub-registrars in Haryana.
The CS has also been asked to mark an in-house inquiry into the grant of licence to private builders/petitioners for development of residential colonies over government land, and to fix the liability of the delinquent officers/officials. HC has clarified that if the inquiry reports indicate the commission of any penal offences, the government should consider launching of appropriate criminal proceedings against the delinquent officers.
Directions have also been given for a probe into registration of a sale deed of acquired land in favour of Ansal Township Infrastructure and others in Badshahpur area of Gurgaon.
A division bench, comprising Justice Sureshwar Singh Thakur and Justice Kuldeep Tiwari of the HC, has passed these orders while dismissing a plea filed by Anshal Township Infrastructure Ltd and others. The court has also imposed a cost of Rs 1 lakh on the petitioner in this case for material concealment of facts before the HC. The amount is to be deposited to the poor patient fund of PGIMER Chandigarh.
The petitioner company in this case had sought directions for denotification of land as per Section 101-A and the policy dated September 14, 2018.
The state government had initiated the process to acquire a chunk of land while invoking the urgency clause for construction of Badshahpur drain in Badshahpur village of Gurgaon. The notifications for acquisition of land were issued on March 1 and March 26, 1971. After passing the award, the land was acquired by the state. The petitioner company had purchased the land in 2008, around 37 years after lawful termination of the acquisition proceedings, and they thereafter managed to procure the requisite licences from the department of town and country planning Haryana in 2010 for the development of colonies.
The claim of the petitioner company was that in the absence of updating of the relevant revenue record and at the time of purchase of the land they were not aware of the acquisition proceedings. The petitioner further sought directions for de-notification of the petition lands, in terms of Section 101-A of the Act of 2013, as well as the policy dated September 14, 2018. It was argued that “unviability” and “nonessentiality” of the petition land for the relevant public purpose, on account of its remaining unutilized even after five decades, makes them amenable for de-notification.
Dismissing their plea, the HC held: “Any sale deeds, as relied upon by the petitioner to establish ownership over the petition lands, is void ab initio, as the original landowners were disempowered to execute the same post the lawful termination of acquisition proceedings.”
