Railway line project: Court ends two-decade row over relief

Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 3

More than 20 years after the initiation of land acquisition proceedings in 28 villages for laying down a railway line from Chandigarh to Ludhiana, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has assessed the market value at rates higher than initially evaluated. Putting an end to the decades-old controversy over compensation amount, the High Court has also asked Punjab to comply with the Supreme Court directions to prevent the fleecing of landowners by middlemen.

Disposing of more than 700 appeals through one judgment running into 144 pages, Justice GS Sandhawalia of the High Court has assessed market value for each settlement, while ordering uniform compensation amount of 30 per cent on market value assessed for different villages and on account of severance of land. Justice Sandhawalia assessed market value for different villages and for different notifications, ranging from Rs 29,39,737 per acre, along with all statutory benefits, for Kambali villages to Rs 10,75,200 for a village further away.

The notifications under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act were issued from June 1999 to July 2004 for acquiring land in the villages in the erstwhile district of Ropar for laying broad-gauge railway line.

The Land Acquisition Collector assessed land value from Rs 10 lakh for Kambala village on the one hand to Rs 4 lakh on the far end of Chandigarh/Mohali. The Reference Court, correspondingly, fixed the market value ranging from Rs 17 lakh per acre to Rs 5 lakh per acre. The severance charges ranged from 20 per cent to 50 per cent.

A High Court in June 2016 enhanced the compensation to amounts ranging from Rs 1,70, 54,630 per acre for villages close to Chandigarh to Rs 62,16,415 for villages on the further end. The Bench also ordered 50 per cent severance charges. The apex court in February 2017 allowed the appeals filed by the Railways and remitted the matter to the High Court for re-decision.

Before parting with the judgment, Justice Sandhawalia directed the state to comply with the directions laid down by the apex court in the case of “HSIIDC versus Pran Sukh” to ensure that the landowners were not fleeced by the middleman. The judgment made it clear that the Land Acquisition Collector would depute officers subordinate to him not below Naib Tahsildar’s rank. They would get in touch with all landowners and/or their legal representatives for informing them about their entitlement and right to receive enhanced compensation.

The officers would also instruct landowners and/or their legal representatives to open a savings bank account if they didn’t have one. The bank account numbers would then be given to the Land Acquisition Collector within three months.

He, in turn, would deposit the cheques of compensation in bank accounts.