60 years on, High Court raps State for using land without acquisition, relief

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that the State cannot claim adverse possession over private property and continue to use private land without acquisition or compensation. The ruling came in a case where Dakshin Haryana Vidyut Parsaran Nigam Ltd (DHVPNL) and other defendants were using land since 1961 “without acquisition and without payment of any compensation”.

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Ruling in favour of landowners, Justice Pankaj Jain directed DHVPNL and other defendants to compensate the plaintiff-landowners at the market rate prevalent in 2005, when the suit was instituted. “The plaintiffs are also held entitled to recover user charges at the rate of Rs 1,000 per annum with 10 per cent enhancement after every 10 years for the period commencing from the year 1961 till date of acquisition – February 16, 2005,” the court said.

Justice Jain observed granting compensation at market rate prevalent in 1961 would be travesty of justice. “For 44 years, not only the plaintiffs were deprived of their right to use the land, but were also deprived of monetary compensation. Had they been granted compensation in 1961, they may have purchased some other land. The same also would have grown exponentially with the other lands in the country. Given the compensation at the rate prevalent in the year 1961, they have been left high and dry. The compensation would be nothing but alms,” the court added.

The matter was brought to Justice Jain’s notice after the landowners filed an appeal against DHVPNL through advocates Anurag Jain and Chahat. “The appellants are landowners fighting the might of State to reclaim their land. Their grievance is against the State usurping their land admeasuring eight kanal-eight marlas,” Justice Jain said.

Rejecting the defendants’ claim of adverse possession, Justice Jain asserted that the plaintiffs were the rightful owners.

Directing the implementation of its ruling within a time-bound manner, Justice Jain ordered, "The Commissioner, Hisar, shall pronounce the award qua suit land deeming the date of acquisition as February 16, 2005, within three months."