The farmers of northwest’s Delhi Kanjhawala village were on Tuesday denied relief by the High Court, which dismissed 100 petitions demanding that the land acquired by the Delhi government for a ‘new Industrial area’ be returned to them,
A Bench of Justices Badar Durez Ahmed and Jayant Nath dismissed the petitions stating that the farmers had expressly given away all right or title to the land in lieu of compensation.
The land was acquired by the Delhi government in 2005.
Though the farmers were paid compensation, they have been agitating for their land to be returned saying the acquisition was forced and that their land, contrary to the government’s claim, is not barren. They also said that since the government had failed to take possession of the land five years after acquisition, the Land Acquisition Act calls for the land to be returned.
‘No rights left to the land’
“The key point in this batch of matters is whether the petitioners had any right left to the land... in the undertakings given by the petitioners in 2011, while opting for the Special Rehabilitation Package and receiving additional payments thereunder, they clearly divested themselves of all their rights to the land,” the Bench noted.
“Thus, at the time of commencement of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 on January 1, 2014, the petitioners had no right, title or interest left in the subject lands. Therefore, they cannot claim any benefit under section 24(2) of the 2013 Act. On this ground alone, the writ petitions are liable to be dismissed,” the court ordered.
As per section 24(2) of the Act, if compensation has been awarded five years or more prior to the commencement of the Act but the physical possession of the land has not been taken, the acquisition proceedings shall be deemed to have lapsed and the land deemed to be belonging to the farmers. The government then needs to start all acquisition proceedings afresh.
The Delhi government had rebutted the claim of the farmers that the government had not taken over the possession as it submitted that the actual physical possession of the lands in question had been taken by the Land Acquisition Collector.
