Hold late applicants eligible for land scheme: Punjab and Haryana High Court

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 15

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) cannot be permitted to take benefit of its own wrongs and to defeat the rights of the landowners accrued by way of legitimate expectations and doctrine of fair play.

The Bench of Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa and Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj also directed the respondent-Corporation to hold the petitioners eligible under the land pooling scheme notified on August 14, 2012, and hold a draw of lots for allotment of a plot to them.

The direction came even as the corporation argued that the landowners had failed to apply before the prescribed cut-off date. As such, their applications could not be considered under the scheme after a delay of nearly eight years.

The Bench asserted: “No valid explanation has been furnished by the corporation as to why it abstained from giving wide publicity to the scheme aimed at welfare of the landowners... HSIIDC’s objection that mere publication of notification is good enough to preclude the ignorant landowner from availing benefits that are more benevolent to him would not be tenable.”

The Bench added it was not inclined to accept the HSIIDC’s submission that failure to exercise an option foreclosed the petitioners’ right. They had not exercised the right to opt under the scheme.

The petitioners ought to have been considered under the scheme when they exercised their option in July 2020 before the draw of lots.

Ajit Kumar and another petitioner were seeking directions to respondent-HSIIDC to allot an industrial plot under the ‘Land Pooling Scheme’ in lieu of their land acquired for public purpose of developing and setting up Industrial Model Township at Kharkhoda in Sonepat district.

Eight-year delay

HSIIDC argued that the landowners had failed to apply before the prescribed cut-off date. As such, their applications could not be considered under the scheme after a delay of nearly eight years.

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