- (1.) The petitioners are aggrieved against the order dated 28.9.2006 passed by the High Powered Committee (Annexure P-16) by which the prayer of the petitioners for release of their lands from acquisition has been declined.
(2.) Briefly the facts of the case are that the State of Haryana issued a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (for short 'the Act') on 24.8.2000 intending to acquire lands situated in villages Tigra, Nangli, Amarpur, Bhajapur etc. for the purpose of development of Sector- 57, Gurgaon for residential, commercial and institutional purposes. Declaration under Section 6 of the Act was issued on 22.8.2001. The petitioners challenged the issuance of these notifications by filing a writ petition bearing C.W.P. No. 10845 of 2004. It was averred that the objections have not been decided by giving a proper hearing to the petitioners. In this writ petition the Advocate General, Haryana, gave an undertaking before the Court that the State of Haryana would constitute a High Powered Committee which would examine the case of each land-owner whose land had been acquired by the aforementioned notifications under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act. Accordingly, the case of the petitioners was considered by the High Powered Committee which rejected the case of the petitioners for release of their lands vide order-Annexure P-16 dated 28.9.2006. It is this order that is under challenge in the present writ petition. C.W.P. No. 17442 of 2006(O&M) [ 2 ]
(3.) Mr. Aggarwal, learned Senior Advocate for the petitioners, has primarily argued that the petitioners have been discriminated against inasmuch as M/s Countrywide Promoters Pvt. Ltd. have been granted license for colonising an area measuring 13.878 acres in village Samaspur, Distt. Gurgaon (Sector-57, Gurgaon) but the petitioners have not been dealt with at par. It has been averred that in order to give license to M/s Countrywide Promoters Pvt. Ltd. the State of Haryana has in fact given land in exchange to the aforementioned builders so that they can have one compact pocket which could facilitate the granting of the license. It has also been argued that similar exchange of land has also been done by the State of Haryana with M/s OMAXE Housing & Developers Ltd. and M/s Ajay Agarwal also and, thus, the Government has adopted a pick and choose policy as it has not acquired the lands of the aforementioned private Developers but has acquired the petitioners' lands. On the basis of the aforementioned facts, counsel for the petitioners has vehemently argued that the lands of the petitioners are liable to be released from acquisition.;