Punjab govt's move to acquire land under land pooling policy under HC lens

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government's land pooling policy, under which the state planned to acquire thousands of acres of land from across the state for developing residential and industrial zones, was challenged before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

The petitioners in this case submitted to the HC that the move to acquire such a large chunk of land would have widespread negative effects on the agrarian economy of Punjab, which is a major contributor to the nation's food grain supply.

During the hearing of the matter on Tuesday, the HC was informed that the said policy is directly contrary to the spirit and mandate of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR Act), which is a central legislation.

It was also submitted that the land pooling policy is being used as a tool to acquire fertile agricultural land across the state of Punjab while circumventing the mandatory procedures laid down under the LARR Act 2013, such as conducting a Social Impact Assessment (Section 4) and Environmental Impact Assessment. The LARR Act 2013 (Section 10) categorically bars the acquisition of fertile agricultural land in the ordinary course and only as a last resort.

The case was heard for around half and hour by the division bench headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu.

Responding to the plea, the counsel for the Punjab govt contended that the land pooling policy was notified under the 2025 policy, not under the LARR Act 2013, as argued by the petitioner. On this, the Chief Justice’s bench advised the counsel for the petitioner to amend the petition accordingly to challenge the acquisition of land as per the 2025 policy. The matter was adjourned for August 19 for further hearing.

“Now we will amend the petition challenging the land pooling policy 2025. Although we tried to convince the court that there is not much difference, on the advice of the bench, we will amend our petition accordingly. The matter has now been fixed for August 19 for further hearing,” counsel for the petitioner, Advocate Sahir Singh Virk, told TOI.

The matter reached the HC in the wake of Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Naveender P K Singh of Mohali and Samita Kaur of Ludhiana. The petitioners have mainly prayed for quashing the impugned notifications dated July 4 and to restrain the state of Punjab from proceeding with the land pooling policy without adhering to the due process of law under the LARR Act, especially when such fertile agricultural land is at stake.



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