File status report on delay in land acquisiton compensation in Punjab: High Court

Gaurav Kanthwal

Mohali, October 24

The Punjab and Haryana High Court in an interim order passed recently has directed the Punjab Government to file a status report on thousands of claims pending for disbursement of compensation for the land acquired by the NHAI with Competent Authority for Land Acquisition (CALA). The disbursement of payment to the land owners has not been made despite passing of awards in 2021 and 2022.

Punjab Special Chief Secretary KAP Sinha, who appeared in the court, gave an affidavit that 5,655 cases of delay in payment after land acquisition were pending in Punjab.

The Punjab Government had submitted an affidavit in the High Court and said currently the government had not given compensation in 5,655 cases due to various reasons. Currently, 185 cases in Faridkot, 584 in Bathinda, 50 in Mansa, 190 in Patiala, 141 in Sangrur, 138 in Barnala, 57 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 238 in Ludhiana, 48 in Malerkotla, 200 in Amritsar, 1,015 in Gurdaspur, 399 in Hoshiarpur, 458 in Jalandhar, 43 in Kapurthala, 539 in Pathankot, 242 in Tarn Taran, 738 in Ferozepur-Fazilka-Moga-Sri Muktsar Sahib and 390 in Rupnagar-SAS Nagar-SBS Nagar are pending due to arbitration proceedings.

“While on one hand this is increasing the liability towards interest on delayed release of compensation, consequently raising the cost of projects, on the other hand, 18 posts of CALA are lying vacant, leading to further delay in disbursement of compensation,” the order by Judge Harkesh Manuja read.

Sinha apprised the court about the necessary steps being taken to solve the aforesaid problems.

He said in cases wherever there is no dispute of apportionment pursuant to the award passed by the CALA, the amount of compensation would be released in favour of the respective landowners within four weeks. Cases wherein any issue of apportionment has been raised, those shall be referred to the Principal Civil Court(s) of original jurisdiction of the place concerned in terms of Section 3H(4) of the National Highways Act, 1956, within six weeks from October 19.

The interest towards the delayed disbursement of compensation in favour of present petitioner and landowner Kanwal Roop Singh, through advocate Naresh Kaushal, shall be determined within a period of one week from the same date and released in his favour within one week thereafter.

With respect to vacant posts of CALA, he assured that process of appointment for this shall be initiated within one week from the abovesaid date and concluded within six weeks. He further assured the court that wherever there had been a delay on the part of CALA officer/authorities (DRO) towards disbursement of compensation in favour of landowners.