Long way for MC to reclaim Gwal Pahari land

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurugram, September 6

The Municipal Corporation Gurugram (MCG) may have won half the battle with the district court declaring the controversial 464 acres of Gwal Pahari as panchayati land, but it still a long way before the MCG can think of reclaiming the land.

As per the orders of Additional District Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu, the MCG — if interested in retaining ownership — has to first pay compensation to the then Jumla Malkaan (proprietors) of the Gwal Pahari village whose name is mentioned in the revenue records as on November 5, 1980.

The compensation, which will run into several hundreds of crores, will go to the natives of Gwal Pahari and not to the third parties who have purchased the land subsequently and have gone on and filed civil suits.

“The direction is based on a decision given in Surajbhan’s case which is under challenge before the Supreme Court. We hope that its judgment leads to free-of-cost transfer of land from the gram panchayat to the corporations because the latter are the natural successors,” said MCG Commissioner Yashpal Yadav.

The court recognised ownership of seven original proprietors of Gwal Pahari village for a total land measuring 98 kanal, 18 marla and set aside the claim of 111 others — SEZs/colonisers/property dealers or VIPs including retired judges and former Union ministers.

The background

The 464 acres of Gwal Pahari lie on Gurugram-Faridabad road. The land under dispute is Shamlat Deh, the village common land on which landowners of the village had been demanding ownership title on a pro-rata basis since 1980.

The Gurugram collector in 1989 allowed the plea which was subsequently overturned in appeal. After several rounds of litigation, the Punjab and Haryana High Court in February 2010 restituted the case back to 1989 and ordered the collector to decide the mutation afresh.

The Municipal Corporation had by then taken over the village and claimed ownership. The problem aggravated manifold as residents entered into an agreement with various colonising realtors for sale of the land because of realty boom in the area despite the dispute over the land ownership not being settled.

The controversy regarding mutation of various land deals related to the land led to multiple litigation in various courts.

The Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court in July 2017, staking claim. On August 10 last year, the High Court, where some 120 petitions had already been filed against the Gurgaon civic body and the state government, asked the Gurgaon District and Sessions Judge to assign all similar pending cases to a single court.

On April 16, the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) Prashant Rana ordered that ownership of the 464 acres would rest with the private owners.

The Municipal Corporation filed an appeal against the order in the sessions court which set aside the previous order and declared the land as panchayati shamlat.

Govt hails decision

The state government has hailed the decision saying after its stand on the Manesar land scam, this is their second but bigger victory as it has managed to get precious land worth thousands of crores free from illegal private ownership supported by series of governments and bureaucrats.