Hand over plots to Kashmiri Pandits without formalities: High Court

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, June 4

Just about two months after the Punjab and Haryana High Court observed allotment of plots to Kashmiri Pandits had been hanging fire “one way or the other for some reason or the other” for the past three decades, a Division Bench has directed the handing over of the possession to them “without presently insisting on mutation entries in the revenue record and settlement deed”.

Suffered extreme hardship

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Again only in view of the special circumstances, specifically, the extreme hardship that the petitioners faced at the time that they were forced to leave Jammu and Kashmir, compound interest will not be charged from them. —HC Bench

The direction by the Bench of Justice Amol Rattan Singh and Justice Lalit Batra came on a petition by Roop Krishen Koul and other petitioners through counsel Padamkant Dwivedi. The Bench, during the course of hearing, was told that plots of different sizes spread over 10 acres, purchased by the Kashmiri Pandits in Bahadurgarh, became a part of the acquisition process.

But it could not be completed and the same was directed to be released. As the land was found to have been utilised by HSVP, another 12 acres were directed to be allocated to the Kashmiri Pandits. But again the process could not be completed due to issues regarding mutation.

The Bench, on a previous date of hearing, observed a provisional letter of allotment was stated to have been issued in the petitioners’ favour. But Dwivedi submitted a condition precedent to actual possession was that the land taken in exchange by the respondent-HSVP from the petitioners, in lieu of the land allotted to them, was to be entered in the mutation register in HSVP’s favour.

HSVP’s counsel, on the other hand, contended: “A part of the land as has been given up by the petitioners was fraudulently sold to them by their vendors, inasmuch as some of the vendors were not even owners of that part, with them having sold land in excess of their share”.

As the case came up for resumed hearing, the Bench added the direction to hand over the possession without presently insisting on mutation entries followed observations in the previous orders with regard to the dispute following the fraud allegedly played upon the petitioners, when they were displaced from Jammu and Kashmir.

Before parting with the case, the Bench made it clear that the respondents would also not insist upon payment of enhanced external development charges as the matter would be gone into in detail subsequently.