After 70 years landowner gets reprieve
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Jan 4: The High Court quashed the cancellation of order of allotment of land of a person in place of his propriety land, acquired by authorities for Maharaja Hari Singh palace in Jammu, and termed it illegal and arbitrary.
The proprietary land was taken over by the authorities on the orders of the then ruler of the state Maharaja Hari Singh for its inclusion in his palace at Ram Nagar Jammu, however, no compensation was paid prompting the landlord to address a representation before the concerned authorities and pursuant to which the then Deputy Revenue Minister on January 18, 1954 directed to provide land in exchange of acquired land and compensation for the structure also.
The directive of the Deputy Revenue Minister was not implemented, constraining the aggrieved landlord to approach the High Court in 1979 by way of a writ petition which was disposed of in terms of order dated 16.02.1989 with the direction to allot two kanals of land in Housing Colony, Jammu city and ascertain the compensation of the construction raised by landlord in terms of order of Deputy Revenue Minister.
The decision was challenged before the Division Bench by way of an appeal by the landlord which came to be disposed of on November 17, 1999 with the direction to the authorities to allot six kanals and one marla of land to the land lord in the vicinity where there was earlier proposal to allot two plots each measuring two kanals and in terms of the orders of Deputy Revenue Mister on 18.01.1954.
The Government challenged the decision before the Supreme Court. The Apex Court granted four weeks time to the State authorities to comply with the DB decision failing which the Special Leave Petition moved by the State to be dismissed without further reference to Court.
The Government in compliance of DB judgment issued a Government on 06.04.2016, whereby sanction for allotment of 6 kanals and one marla of land at village Paloura was granted in favour of the petitioner. However, the order was modified by way of corrigendum reflecting therein that a piece of land measuring 05 kanals and 01 marla at Village, Paloura, Jammu and a piece of land measuring 01 Kanal at village 01 kanal at village Rakh Bahu, Tehsil (Bahu), Jammu would be granted instead of a piece of land measuring 6 kanal and 01 marla at village Paloura, Tehsil Jammu.
The petitioner landlord sold one kanal land situated at village Rakh Bahu to two persons by way of sale deeds before the court of law in 2018 and the authorities thereafter, in terms of the order under challenge cancelled the allotment of one kanal land made in favour of the petitioner.
Justice Moksha Kazmi quashed the cancellation order and observed that since the cancellation has affected not only the allottee but those who have purchased it from the allottee as well, therefore, the allottee as also the purchasers.
“The other factor being referred to is that the object of the allotment was rehabilitation of the petitioner, which too is imaginary as there is absolutely nothing on record that suggests that the allotment in question has been made for rehabilitation purposes, it could not have been and it is not made in such direction” the court said adding with “It is in fact exclusively an alternative piece of land allotted to the petitioner in lieu of his land acquired by the State during the times the Monarchism was in place in the Jammu and Kashmir that too after a long drawn legal battle spreading over decades”.
The court concluded that the impugned cancellation further loses significance for the reason that the land sought to be cancelled by the impugned order is no longer either in ownership or in possession of the allottee who is stated to have sold the same in terms of the registered sale deeds placed on record and those who have purchased such land, are now the recorded owners of the said piece of land and quashed the order of cancellation.
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