After 16 years, 550 allottees to get plots in Sector 57, Gurugram

GURUGRAM: After a 16-year wait, there’s finally some good news for the 550 land allottees of Sector 57.

The Punjab and Haryana HC has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the acquisition of land by HSVP (erstwhile Huda) for the development of the sector, thus paving the way for the handover of the plots to the allottees.

The story dates back to 2000, when then Huda had acquired some 67 acres of land to develop Sector 57 along the Golf Course Extension Road and allotted plots through a draw of lots four years later. Of the 67 acres, around 53 acres were acquired from Saraswati Kunj Cooperative Society that was set up in the 1990s.

The society had first challenged the acquisition in 2002, which was dismissed in October 2013 by the Punjab and Haryana HC. A review petition filed in 2014 was also dismissed by the HC in the same year.

In 2015 again, the society had again approached the court for quashing of the acquisition on the ground that even after over five years, neither the allottees of Sector 57 plots were given possession nor compensation paid to the land owners as per the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

However, a division bench of justices Rakesh Kumar Jain and Ashok Kumar Verma dismissed the petition by the Saraswati Kunj Cooperative Society, taking into consideration a Supreme Court order in a land acquisition case. “The present writ petition is hereby dismissed being denuded of any merit,” the high court said on August 21.

In fact, during the hearings, Lokesh Sinhal, HSVP’s advocate, told the court that the society’s arguments stand invalid in the wake of the Supreme Court’s March judgment in a case between Indore Development Authority and some land owners. The SC had then ruled that land acquisitions could not lapse due to a land owner’s refusal to accept compensation within five years.

The HSVP lawyer had further argued that the compensation of the acquired land has already been deposited in the office of the land acquisition officer. He also cited SC’s observations in the Indore case that once land acquisition is unsuccessfully challenged.

Over the year the sector along the Golf Course Road has turned into one of the most sought after locations in the city and the price of the plots sold for few lakhs now has market value in crores.

HSVP officials said that they’re soon going to start a survey of the area to initiate the process of giving possession of the plots to the allottees. “We have deputed our junior engineers to give physical possession of the plot to the allottees. Some 550 plot holders will soon get possession,” said estate officer-2 of HSVP (Gurgaon) Vivek Kalia said.