Village common land not corporation’s: High court

Source – indiatimes.com

GURUGRAM: A five-judge bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court has ruled that common land (shamlat deh) in villages that have been notified under municipal corporations but have been contributed by individual land owners to the panchayat for agrarian purposes belong to the original individual owners. Thus, if a municipal corporation wants to acquire ‘shamlat deh’, it will have to pay compensation to the original land owners at market rate.

The ruling was part of a 182-page judgment dated July 22, 2016 but released on April 24, 2017 . The five-judge bench consisted of Justice S S Saron, Justice Augustine George Masih, Justice Paramjeet Singh Dhaliwal, Justice Rekha Mittal and Justice Lisa Gill.

The ruling came in the case Suraj Bhan and ASF Buildwell vs State of Haryana, which has an operational SEZ in Gwalpahari. The MCG is engaged in a bitter ownership battle over 464 acres of land in Gwalpahari that is in the custody of private owners.

The ruling is expected to put smiles on faces of several people in Gwalpahari. It makes the task of acquiring ‘shamlat deh’ very difficult for municipal corporations in the state, as it will drain their coffers.

Authorities in Chandigarh admitted the ruling will have far-reaching significance.

“This ruling will impact not just Gwalpahari, but many other villages in such as Bandhwari, Ghata, Raisina, Nathupur, Dhanwapur, Bajghera, Choma, etc. Acquiring so much land with compensation can bankrupt city corporations. The court has ruled that ‘shamlat deh’ are meant to be used for agrarian reforms. Since municipal corporations have no agrarian purpose, they need to give the land back to original land owners who had contributed their land, or else compensate them,” said a senior state government official.

“In the case of Gwalpahari, MCG already has around 180 acres in its possession, which it may have to hand back to the original owners now. It’s also possible they may not acquire more land in Gwalpahari, which they had earlier sought to. In fact, other municipal corporations across Haryana will now be in two minds on whether to acquire ‘shamlat deh’ land or not, as they would need a lot of money for acquisition,” the official added.

MCG officials said they will comment only after carefully scrutinising the order.