The Punjab and Haryana high court has stayed a clause in Punjab government’s 2021 land pooling policy that bars landowners from getting preferential or corner plots in exchange for their land acquired for an upcoming industrial sector near Aerocity and IT City in Mohali.
The sector is being developed over 488 acres across Dhurali, Chau Majra, Saini Majra, Raipur Khurd and Manouli villages.
A division bench of justice Anupinder Singh Grewal and justice Deepak Manchanda passed the order while hearing a petition filed by 111 villagers of Dhurali, whose land was acquired for Sector 101 under an award issued in January 2023. The court ordered that the operation of the clause will remain stayed till the next hearing.
The petitioners challenged Clause D of the 2021 policy, which denies preferential location plots to beneficiaries of the land pooling scheme. They argued that in earlier projects such as Ecocity, Aerocity, IT City and Sectors 88-89, owners, whose land was acquired, were allotted preferential plots. Thus, the present denial was highly discriminatory, illegal, arbitrary, irrational, and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, they submitted, demanding the clause’s quashing.
“The denial of preferential location plots, to the land losers, rather makes the very purpose of the land pooling scheme redundant because it is a benevolent scheme meant for the land losers showing compassion, whereas, the action in the present acquisition totally lacks the same,” the plea said, adding that whenever the benevolent policies, including rehabilitation policies/oustees policies were framed and interpreted by higher courts, the catch was always that the oustees/land losers were to be given preferential treatment.
{{/usCountry}}“The denial of preferential location plots, to the land losers, rather makes the very purpose of the land pooling scheme redundant because it is a benevolent scheme meant for the land losers showing compassion, whereas, the action in the present acquisition totally lacks the same,” the plea said, adding that whenever the benevolent policies, including rehabilitation policies/oustees policies were framed and interpreted by higher courts, the catch was always that the oustees/land losers were to be given preferential treatment.
{{/usCountry}}“Denial of preferential location/corner plot to the land losers amounts to defiance of not only the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisitions, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013... but also amounts to unfairness on the part of the acquiring agency,” it further said.
The petitioners also highlighted how some land losers in Ecocity were asked to pay preferential location charges. But after they approached the high court, the government/ development authority itself took a conscious decision not to charge the amount.
The villagers also sought issuance of a “sahuliyat certificate” with a validity of at least two years. A sahuliyat certificate in Punjab is a document issued to landowners participating in land pooling policies. It provides benefits, including stamp duty exemptions, when purchasing new agricultural land using proceeds from developed plots.
The petitioners further appealed that allotment calculations be based on one marla equalling 30 square yards instead of 25 square yards, along with enhancement of subsistence allowance. They told the court that repeated representations to authorities have not been addressed.