Supreme Court received a contempt petition, TCP official asked to respond on Gurugram Land Release Case

SC received a contempt petition, TCP official asked to respond on Gurugram Land Release Case

The Supreme Court of India (SC) has issued notice to a Senior Haryana town and country planning (TCP) and Urban Estate Department Official on receiving a Contempt Petition filed in the Gurugram land release case.

Mr. Jai Narayan (petitioner) said that the state government had told the SC that the land was required to be acquired for setting up a power substation in Sector 65 of Gurugram.

The petitioner mentioned, "It is relevant to note that an electricity substation has already come up wherein his land was not even required. The possession of the land on which the electricity substation came up had been handed over by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam (HVPN)."

It was further stated by the petitioner that the Congress Government in 2009 issued a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (Act) for initiating a process of acquiring about 1,400 acres of eight Gurugram villages that include- Nagli Umarpur, Tigra, Ullahwas, Kadarpur, Maidawas, Badshahpur, Behrampur and Ghata that said villages land was acquired for development purposes of residential Sectors 58 -63 and commercial Sectors 65- 67 in Gurugram. That while issuing the declaration under Section 6 of the said Act, the total area was reduced to about 800 acres.

On 29 May 2012, an award was passed for acquiring 87 acres of land only. The said order was passed by the SC and it stated that about 1,300 acres of land was released by the government in favor of private builders.

The SC, while passing the above order also directed a CBI inquiry in the release of 95% of the about 1,400 acres of land under acquisition of the eight villages of Gurugram. The SC also passed an order that the petitioner's plea regarding release of his land shall be considered and decided.

The petitioner filed a contempt petition before the SC and stated that despite orders dated 1 November 2017 of the SC, the TCP department has not decided his representation pertaining to the release of the petitioner's four-kanal land.

The petitioner stated that on 24 November 2017, he had filed a representation for release of his acquired land. However, even after the orders of the SC, the said orders have not been complied with. The petition states, "The contemnor has committed contempt of the Supreme Court and is liable to be punished."

The SC took up the contempt petition and the bench comprising Justice Vineet Saran and Justice Ajay Rastogi passed an order on 4 January 2021, "Issue notice returnable immediately after six weeks. In case the response is filed by the next date of hearing, the respondent need not be present in person."