Court: Sell DC’s house to pay farmer for land

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 13

The orders of a local court to auction the official residence of the Deputy Commissioner to pay Rs 7 crore to an 80-year-old farmer for the acquisition of his property by Jalandhar Improvement Trust has come as a shock for the local administration.

The court of Civil Judge Senior Division Rashmi Sharma had issued the orders for the sale of property by June 13, but most officials were unaware of any such order.

The matter pertained to an application for execution filed by Ajit Singh of Reru village, whose 60 kanal had been acquired by the trust in 1990. The land was acquired for developing transport nagar, near Amritsar bypass. The matter remained in litigation for nearly 28 years. The elderly villager kept waiting outside the DC residence even on Wednesday for the execution of the court orders, but to no avail.

As a quick remedial measure by the administration that was sleeping on the issue for the past two months since the orders were passed, an application for seeking exemption from auction was moved by the Executive Engineer (XEN), PWD, Ginder Singh on Wednesday.

The XEN and tehsildar KS Bhullar said in their petition they had sought exemption from the court on the basis of the fact that the Jalandhar Improvement Trust was an autonomous body. “As per the complainant, the compensation was to be paid to him by the trust. So, it cannot be recovered by auction of the state government’s property whether it was Deputy Commissioner’s residence or any other,” they pleaded.

The officers have urged that the orders for the auction of DC’s residence must be quashed and compensation must be given to the complainant by auctioning the properties of the trust and not that of the state government. “There is no lapse on part of the DC office,” they said. The petition will be taken up by the court on Thursday.

Basant Garg, officiating chairman, JIT, said: “There is a bunch of seven cases where enhancement of award has been ordered. We will make payment in all cases. We were not aware of the court orders in this particular case, but we will make the payment as soon as we can.”

28-year wait

• October 30, 1987: Union government issues notification for acquisition of a farmer’s land.
• October 27, 1990: JIT announces award of Rs 2,000 per marla. Dissatisfied, applicant moves Tribunal soon after.
• February 21, 2013: Tribunal chairman JS Klar orders enhancement of award to Rs 4,500 per marla.
• February 18, 2017: After a petition was moved in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, award enhanced to Rs 8,727 per marla.
• November 1, 2017: High Court decision upheld by Supreme Court, JIT had filed an SLP.
• May 2017: Applicant approaches local court for execution of orders.