Dadupur Nalvi irrigation scheme: Haryana move to return 1K acres suffers setback after HC order
Denotification of land acquired by the state government for public purposes means that the land will be returned to the original landowners after recovering the compensation amount paid to them for acquisition.
With the Punjab and Haryana high court striking down a provision to de-notify tracts of land acquired for public purpose, Haryana government’s six-year-old move to return 1,019 acres, acquired for the Dadupur-Nalvi irrigation scheme, to the landowners has come a cropper.

De-notification of land acquired by the state government for public purposes means that the land will be returned to the original landowners after recovering the compensation amount paid to them for acquisition.
The “ill advised” move, as was termed by the opposition, piloted under the BJP rule with Manohar Lal Khattar at the helm, saw its end after the high court in December 2024 struck down section 101-A of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, a clause inserted by way of state amendment in 2018 with retrospective effect from January 1, 2014, the date the 2013 central Act came into force. Section 101-A empowered the state government to de-notify the land on account of the fact that the public purpose for which it was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 became unviable or non-essential.
Since the process to return the land to their original owners had remained unfinished, the Irrigation and Water Resources department had on August 13, 2024, extended the time till December 31, 2024, for return of land. Asked about the status of the denotification exercise, engineer in chief, Irrigation and Water Resources, Rakesh Chauhan said that some landowners had filed applications, and some had paid back the compensation amount. “However, we will need to check,” he said.
Amended provision arbitrary: HC
“We are of the firm opinion that section 101-A is liable to be struck down, suffering from the vice of manifest arbitrariness. We are of the considered opinion that the action of the state government in de-notifying was dehors the policy at the highest level in spite of the same being in place and, therefore, even the action itself is liable to be struck down,’’ said the HC bench of Justice GS Sandhawalia and Justice Harpreet Kaur Jeewan.
Haryana additional advocate general, Ankur Mittal who argued the case said that the state government will assail the HC judgement in Supreme Court. “We will challenge the high court’s order striking down a state legislation,” Mittal said.
What was the irrigation scheme
The Dadupur-Nalvi Irrigation Scheme was conceptualised in 1980s for irrigating tracts in Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra and Ambala districts by releasing about 590 cusecs water annually from Yamuna River into a lined channel taking off from Dadupur. It was for recharging the groundwater table as well as to provide canal irrigation to the three districts.
In September 2017, the Khattar government decided to de-notify the land and return it to landowners citing viability of the scheme and prospects of paying heavy compensation for the acquired land to the farmers. A formal notification was issued by the irrigation and water resources department in 2018.
“The state being unable to defend its case and the apex court asking them to deposit ₹50 lakhs per acre was the primary reason whereby the project was sought to be dropped in the absence of any such provision. At that point of time on March 20, 2017, the principal secretary of the irrigation department had opined that there was no such provision for dropping the proceedings since the 1894 Act was in play,’’ reads the court proceedings.
Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Randeep Surjewala condemned the BJP government’s decision to scrap the irrigation scheme and return the land to farmers. Following 2023 floods in the state, former chief minister, Hooda had said that Dadupur-Nalvi irrigation channel was the biggest water recharge project in northern Haryana which would have also worked to protect Yamunanagar, Ambala to Kurukshetra from floods. “The BJP government, however, de-notified the project as soon as it came to power. By doing this, the government did injustice by snatching the scheme which proved to be the lifeline for the area during the disaster,” he had said.
