Crackdown on Sohna farm houses: HC tells authorities to hear all 450 land owners

The order has been passed in a petition challenging the notices issued on May 23 and May 25 to the people whose land is located in the village and was developed as Aravali Retreat by the Ansal Properties and Industries as farm houses in 1989.

Punjab, Haryana high court, false molestation charges, molestation cases, Chandigarh news, indian express

During the hearing on June 3, the state counsel told the court that the petitioners will be given a notice of three days and their cases will be decided within seven days after hearing them. (File)

THE PUNJAB and Haryana has ordered the municipal authorities in Sohna to give a three days’ notice to all the 450 persons or entities, who have allegedly changed the the nature of their land from ‘gair mumkin pahar’ (uncultivable hilly areas) to farm houses in the Raisina village and decide their cases within seven days after providing them an opportunity of hearing. No construction will be demolished till a decision is taken, the state government has told the court.

The order has been passed in a petition challenging the notices issued on May 23 and May 25 to the people whose land is located in the village and was developed as Aravali Retreat by the Ansal Properties and Industries as farm houses in 1989. Various activities like construction, mining are prohibited on land categorized as gair mumkin pahar without required clearance, as per a notification of 1992 by the Ministry of Environment and Forest with regard to Aravalli. However, the owners argued that the notification does not extend to land shown as ‘gair mumkin farm house’ in the revenue record and a Special Environment Court in 2015 has already held that there is no evidence on record to show the constructions have been raised after the date of notification.

“Before transferring the farm houses, M/s Ansal Properties and Industries Ltd vide communication dated 25.10.1989 sought permission from the Director, Town and Country Planning Department, Haryana, Chandigarh, to grant approval, if so required, so that there is no impediment in the transfer of the said farm houses,” the petition filed through advocate Pankaj Jain reads, adding that the state government later communicated that since development of farm houses is an agricultural activity, no permission was required.

Submitting that notices have been purportedly issued on the basis of orders issued by the national Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2015, the petitioners have argued that their land is not hit by the 1992 notification as their land stands recorded as gari mumkin farm house and not as forest. “These lands are neither reserve forest, nor protected forest, nor recorded forest,” the petition states.

During the hearing on June 3, the state counsel told the court that the petitioners will be given a notice of three days and their cases will be decided within seven days after hearing them. However, the court ordered the authorities to provide the same time period and opportunity to all the 450 cases to avoid a flood of litigation.

“It is further clarified that neither the petitioners nor the persons in similar situation shall try to delay the proceedings, which is now going to be initiated by the municipal council, Sohna, in Gurugram district, for the purpose of the decision on the show cause notice,” the division bench of Justices Rakesh Kumar Jain and Ashok Kumar Verma said in the order.

First uploaded on: 09-06-2020 at 13:22 IST

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