Jasbir Singh, J. - (1.) THIS judgment will dispose of five writ petitions, i.e., Civil Writ Petitions No. 2254, 2946, 2975, 2976 and 3003, all of the year 1990, as common question of facts and law is involved in all these cases. For facility, to dictate judgment, facts are being mentioned from CWP No. 2254 of 1990.
(2.) THIS writ petition has been filed by the 51 Petitioners/land owners, whose land was sought to be acquired by the Respondents by issuing a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, (in short the Act) on January 30, 1989, followed by a declaration issued under Section 6 of the Act on January 25, 1990. Award was passed on January 22, 1992. Heard counsel for the parties.
(3.) THIS writ petition was filed in the year 1990. Thereafter, it was amended vide order dated March 15, 1992. The Petitioners have challenged the above notifications on a ground that constructed buildings/ residential houses of the Petitioners were in existence when notification under Section 4 of the Act was issued and as such, as per policy of the State Government, acquisition was not justified. To say so, following averment was made in the writ petition: 7. That the notifications, annexure P1 and P3, are patently illegal, arbitrary, malafide and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India for the following reasons amongst others: (a) That the Petitioners constructed residential houses on the land in question after incurring huge expenditure. Certain Petitioners even raised constructions after getting clearance from the Respondent authorities that no such acquisition proceedings were pending with respect to the area in question. The Petitioners have also been provided with electric connections by the Haryana State Electricity Board. On the basis of this position the action of the Respondents in proceeding to acquire the built up residential colony/area is patently illegal, arbitrary, malafide and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.. The Petitioners further alleged that land owned by many other land owners was kept out of acquisition, whereas arbitrarily the said relief was not granted to the Petitioners. In that regard, it was stated as under in this writ petition: b) That the action of the Respondents in the facts and circumstances of the instant case, is patently illegal, arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution in as much as the following areas bearing numbers hereinafter detailed, have been left out while issuing notification under Section 6 of the Act. The left out areas include the properties of Land Acquisition Officer, Gurgaon (Sh. Ashok Vashishat) comprised in Khasra No. 149. Other persons whose properties have been left out are Sh. Dhan Singh, Sub Inspector, Haryana Police, Sh. Sultan Singh, Director, Body Building, Haryana Roadways, Sh. Baljit Singh Hans, Advocate and Shri Sukhbir Singh Advocate. It may be also pertinent to point out that Shri Baljit Singh Hans had sold some plots and areas belonging to him and other influential persons have been left out whereas the residential properties of the Petitioners have been acquired. The Khasra numbers which have been left out are as under: ;