HC junks plea seeking hiked relief for Mirchpur riot victims

More than 15 years after 254 families fled Mirchpur village in Hisar district following caste-based violence, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has dismissed a plea seeking enhanced compensation of Rs 1 crore in case of death and Rs 25 lakh for injuries.

“The court is constrained to observe that the entire exercise appears to have become a commercial enterprise,” the Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Nidhi Gupta asserted, while dismissing a petition seeking review of an earlier order.

The Bench noted that the State of Haryana had already allotted 258 plots to 254 displaced families and that more than 200 families had been provided plots measuring 85 square yards each. “It has been admitted by the review petitioners… that in respect of the said 254 displaced families, 258 plots have been allotted,” the court noted.

As for the allegation that 15 victims remained without allotment, the Bench found the claim to be “incorrect”. Referring to a status report filed by the Special Secretary, Home Department, it said only 33 families had migrated from Mirchpur following the April 2010 violence and had subsequently returned to the village without reporting any threat or incident of violence.

“In this situation, it is not clear as to why petitioners insist on continuing to reside at private property by the name of Tanwar Farmhouse and are insisting for their rehabilitation outside their native village,” the Bench remarked. It observed that the petitioners’ continued refusal to return lent credence to the State’s argument that they preferred to live near Hisar city due to better earning opportunities. “Needless to say, the same cannot constitute a ground for shifting and for rehabilitating them,” the Bench said.

Dismissing the petition, the court observed that no ground was made out for review of the January 9, 2024, order, but granted liberty to the petitioners to approach the competent authority in case any grievance still survived.