Case: Rameshwar &amp; Others Vs. State of Haryana &amp; Others

3. The relevant facts leading to the filing and disposal of the aforesaid writ petitionOn 27.08.2004 Haryana Government, Industries Department issued a Notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 ("Act" for short) for acquiring lands admeasuring about 912 Acres from three villages namely, Manesar, Lakhnoula and Naurangpur, Tehsil and District Gurgaon for setting up Chaudhari Devi Lal Industrial Township, to be planned as an Integrated Complex for residential, recreational and other public purposes. The notification was duly published in newspapers. The landholders including some of the writ petitioners filed their objections under Section 5A of the Act.(ii) Soon after the initiation of acquisition, various sale deeds were executed by the landholders including some of the writ petitioners in favour of certain builders/private entities. Some such builders/private entities who had recently purchased the lands also preferred objections under Section 5A of the Act.(iii) On 26.02.2005, a report was prepared by Land Acquisition Collector recommending to the State Government that land admeasuring 224 acres be released from acquisition. Thereafter, appropriate notification under Section 6 of the Act was issued on 25.08.2005 in respect of rest of the land admeasuring 688 acres.(iv) This acquisition was subject matter of challenge in number of Writ Petitions filed by the landholders and the subsequent purchasers viz. builders/private entities.(v) Even after issuance of notification under Section 6 of the Act, the builders/private entities continued approaching the landholders. It was submitted that the landholders were being shown Award Nos.7, 8, 9, 10 and 12, all passed on 09.03.2006 in respect of adjoining villages for the same purpose namely setting up of Chaudhary Devi Lal Industrial Township, where compensation was awarded @ Rs. 12.5 lakhs per acre. In all these cases, notifications under Section 4 were issued on 17.09.2004 while declarations under Section 6 were issued on 27.10.2004 and the lands covered under Award Nos. 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 were i) 114 Kanals 02 Marlas, ii) 68 Kanals 15 Marlas, iii) 43 Biswas, iv) 65 Kanals 08 Marlas and v) 3515 Kanals 01 Marlas respectively. It was submitted that the landholders were thus cornered with the prospect of impending acquisition and the idea that the compensation would be awarded @ Rs. 12.5 lakhs per acre and were persuaded to enter into transactions with builders/private respondents transferring their holdings @ Rs.lakhs per acre.(vi) On 02.08.2007 notices under Section 9 of the Act were issued calling upon the landholders to appear on 26.08.2007 for pronouncement of award. Soon after such notice, the builder/private entities started enhancing the price and bought the lands from the landholders at a price around Rs. 80 lakhs per acre.(vii) On 24.08.2007, the State Government passed an order dropping the acquisition and stating that a fresh notification would be issued in place of the present proceedings. The reasons given in the order dated 24.08.2007 were asthis connection, it is informed that State Government has notified that certain parcels of land have been released by Government on the recommendation of Ministers Committee separately. Some of these parcels are acquired in the land acquisition proceedings under consideration. Further, Town and Country Planning Department has also informed that there are several cases wherein builders applied for licence/CLU on the land which also form part of the acquisition proceedings. Furthermore, in a number of cases the courts have stayed dispossession of land. In the circumstances, it is difficult at this stage to make up a view as what could be the shape and size of the land eventually being acquired by Government. It will not be appropriate to go ahead with these proceedings in the present form. State Government has, therefore, ordered that a fresh notification be issued in place of the present proceedings indicating therein as to which are the lands that are available for acquisition without anyOn 20.09.2007 Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (for short HSIIDC) submitted a proposal to constitute an Inter Departmental Committee to survey the area and submit its recommendations for initiating fresh acquisition proceedings. On 09.10.2007 pending Writ Petitions filed by the landholders and the subsequent purchasers were disposed of by the High Court as having become infructuous in view of the dropping of the acquisition on 24.08.2007 and subsequent decision to constitute an Inter Departmental Committee.(ix) On 27.12.2007 licence Nos.283 and 284 were issued by the State Government for setting up a housing society.(x) On 26.03.2008 the Inter Departmental Committee submitted a report recommending complete withdrawal of acquisition. It was stated in the report that 12 applications for grant of licence along with requisite fees were submitted by various colonizers in respect of an area of about 362 acres.(xi) Around 22.09.2009, approvals of building plans of group housing societies and schemes of private builders came to be granted.(xii) Having come to know that the lands under acquisition were now being utilized for private gain by various builders/colonizers, the farmers started agitation against the process adopted by the Governmental machinery.(xiii) On 29.01.2010 a decision was taken by the State Government in Industries and Commerce Department to close the acquisition proceedings in view of the recommendations of the Inter Departmental Committee dated 26.03.2008 which in turn had been accepted by the HSIIDC.(xiv) The farmers agitation against the decision of the State Government favouring the builders was widely reported in newspapers on 01.03.2011. The agitation continued beyond August and September, 2011. On 20.09.2011 a request was made by sending communications to various functionaries for registration of FIR in respect of fraud played by the officials of the Land Acquisition Department as well as the Director, Town Planning in active connivance with the builders.(xv) On 19.12.2011 the aforesaid Writ Petition No.23769 of 2011 was filed in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh by 117 landholders. It was submitted that the entire action of initiating the acquisition and thereby compelling writ petitioners/landholders to divest their valuable and fertile land at throwaway prices under the threat of acquisition to certain private builders and then dropping the acquisition just two days before the date fixed for declaration of award was deliberate and was fraught with malice.(xvi) In the written statement filed by Respondent No.3ABW Infrastructure Limited, it was submitted that the answering respondent had obtained requisite licences for its residential as also commercial/group housing project namely ABW Niketan and had raised loans to the tune of Rs.i.e. Gurgaon Development Plan was notified on 05.02.2007.(xviii) The written statement submitted by Respondent No.6Metropolis Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. stated that said Company was incorporated on 19.04.2006. Rest of the submissions were on lines similar to that of Respondent Nos.4 and 5.(xix) On 06.12.2012 written statement was filed by State of Haryana justifying its action of withdrawal of acquisition. It was submitted that the writ petitioners had approached the Court more thanyears after the decision of the State Government of dropping the acquisition proceedings. It was denied that there was any nexus between the builders and the State officials or that the exercise of acquisition was in any manner mala fide or fraudulent.(xx) In their replications filed on 15.01.2013, it was submitted by the writ petitioners that most of the lands were purchased by the builders or their substitute companies after the issuance of the Notification under Section 4 of the Act and yet, the sale deeds executed between the parties made no mention of factum of such notification. Further, the escalation of prices in last 20 days namely after the issuance of the notices under Section 9 showed that the builders were not only aware but were also sure that the acquisition would be dropped by the State Government. The hike in price was essentially to lure the landholders as after dropping of the acquisition there would be no threat to the landholders.(xxi) On 24.02.2014 the High Court directed the State of Haryana to give details about various acquisitions initiated around the time in question for the same public purpose namely, setting up of Chaudhary Devi Lal Industrial Township.(xxii) Accordingly, on or about 21.03.2014 an additional affidavit was filed on behalf of State of Haryana giving relevant details in a tabular chart. These details appear to be in addition to the lands covered under Awards 7, 8, 9, 10 and 12 of 09.03.2006. The relevant tabular chart was asof Sections 4 and 6 notifications along with the Revenue Estates as mentioned in the written statement dated 06.12.2012Sl.No.Events912 acres, IMT, Manesar24 acres, IMT, Manesar163 acres, IMT, Manesar3718 acres, IMT, Manesar3510 acres, IMT, Manesar12345671.Date of Sec. 4 Notification27.08.200427.12.200525.11.200508.12.200625.04.20082.Land Area Notified U/S, Naurangpur, ManesarManesarManesar, Khoh, KasanFazilwas, Kukrola, Kharkhri, Bas Lambi, Mokalwas, Seharavan Fakharpur.Fazilwas, Kukrola, Kharkhri, Bas Lambi, Mokalwas, Seharavan Fakharpur.4.PurposeSetting up of Chaudhary Devi Lal Industrial Model Township,Setting up of Chaudhary Devi Lal Industrial ModelSetting up of the Industrial Model Township, Manesar, toSetting up of Chaudhary Devi Lal Industrial Model Township toSetting up of Chaudhary Devi Lal Industrial Model Township toManesar, to be planned as an integrated complex for residential, recreational and other public utilities.Township, Manesar, to be planned as an integrated complex for residential, recreational and other public utilities.be planned and developed as an integrated complex for industrial, residential, recreational and other public utilities, etc.be planned as an integrated complex for Industrial, Commercial and other public utilities by the HSIIDC.be planned as an integrated complex for Industrial, Commercial and other public utilities by the HSIIDC.5.Date of Sec. 6 Notification25.08.200515.07.200624.11.200618.01.200809.03.200922.04.20096.Land Area Notified u/Se of AwardAward not announced as the acquisition proceedings were allowed to lapse vide government order dated 24.08.200726.06.200824.02.2007Section 6 Notification was inadvertently issued after expiry of the period of one year from the date of last publication of Section 4 notification and became a legal nullity. Fresh Section 4 notification for 3510 acres was issued on 25.04.2008.24.08.2009 Award in respect of 1128 acres was announced on 21.04.2011.Award of the remaining land was not announced in view of the decision of the Cabineton infrastructure and explained in paragraph 6 of the reply on merits of the written statement dt.in addition to lands covered by said Awards dated 09.03.2006, about 1315 acres of land stood acquired whereas 688 acres of land covered by Declaration under Section 6 of the Act in the present case was dropped from acquisition. It is relevant to note that in relation to acquisition referred to in Column No.5 vide award dated 24.02.2007 (annexed atin the Paper book) compensation was assessed at the rate of Rs. 12.5 lakhs per acre; identical to one assessed in Awards dated 09.03.2006.(xxiv)The aforesaid petition as well as connected matters were dismissed by the High Court vide its judgment under appeal. It was observed that the landholders had taken no action after their writ petitions were dismissed as infructuous by order dated 09.10.2007 and the present action initiated more thanyears after such dropping of acquisition was wholly belated. It wasis the case of the petitioners, that they were forced to sell their property under the threat of acquisition to the private respondents and thus the sale deeds so executed by them in their favour, deserved toHowever we are unable to agree with the said contention raised by the Ld. Counsel for the petitioners as at no stage did the petitioners ever raised hue and cry viz. the said acquisition proceedings. Even when the writ petitions were filed by them in the year 2005 impugning the said acquisition proceedings, then also no grievance was raised by them in this regard and in fact during the pendency of these writ petitions, they even sold off their land to the private respondents for consideration and even got sale deeds executed in their favour. Even when the said writ petitions were dismissed as infructuous vide order dated 09.10.2007, then also no such distress or grievance was raised by them before this Court. Until the filing of the present writ petition, no action much less coercive action was taken by the petitioners against the respondents viz. setting aside of the sale deeds on the ground of fraud which thus apparently shows that not only did they acquiesced to the dropping of the said acquisition proceedings by the State Government but also waived off their right to challenge the same as well as the sale deeds executed by them in favour of the private respondents in view of Article 59 of the Limitation Act and thus now at this stage they have no vested or accrued right to challenge the said sale deeds voluntarily executed by them in favour of the private respondents and that too after a long yawning gap of 10 years in view of Section 31 of the Specific Relief Act, for which the present writ petitions being hit by delay and latches cannot be entertained for initiating such an action.The Landholders being aggrieved by the decision of the High Court dated 15.12.2014 filed petitions for special leave to appeal in this Court. After hearing both sides this Court granted special leave on 06.10.2015 and continued the interim order granted earlier which was to injunct any further construction on the lands in question. This Court also recorded the submission of the Counsel for the State that investigation was entrusted to CBI and directed CBI to place its report before this Court, as and when the investigation was over. An interim report was filed by CBI in March, 2017. On 30.01.2017 Mr. C.A. Sundaram, learned Senior Advocate was appointed Amicus Curiae to assist the Court. The subsequent order dated 21.03.2017 records that the CBI had filed its interim report, a copy of which was directed to be given to the learned Amicus Curiae. The matters were thereafter taken up for hearing.

Court's reasoning:
If we consider the established or crystallized facets of the matter as stated above, in the light of the principles emerging from the decisions rendered by this Court, in our considered view the decisions dated 24.08.2007 and 29.01.2010 were taken to confer advantages and benefits upon the builders/private entities rather than to carry out or effectuate public purpose. The record indicates that various entities including certain "middlemen" cornered unnatural gains and walked away with huge profits taking the entire process of acquisition for a ride. Substantial sums have exchanged hands in the form of settlement money. All the steps and stages show that the builders/private entities were well aware that the acquisition would not go through but the landholders were confronted with the smoke screen of acquisition and were cornered and persuaded in entering into transactions with the builders/private entities. The transactions so entered into between the landholders and the concerned builders/private entities could not be said to be voluntary and free from any influence. The unnatural and unreasonable bargain was forced upon the landholders by creating façade of impending acquisition. Public Interest was not the underlying concern or objective behind those decisions dated 24.08.2007 and 29.01.2010 but the motive was to confer undue advantage on the builders/private entities. It is clear that considerations other than those which were required to be bestowed, guided the exercise of power in arriving at decisions dated 24.08.2007 and 29.01.2010. The inescapable conclusion, therefore, is that there was an unholy nexus between the governmental machinery and the builders/private entities in devising a modality to deprive the innocent and gullible landholders of their holdings and jeopardize public interest which the acquisition was intended to achieve. Mr. Dhruv Mehta, learned Senior Advocate is right in his submission that the entire mechanism was deliberately employed so that gullible landholders could be deprived of their holdings by a set of builders/private entities and after having seen that the desired result was achieved, the acquisition was dropped and later completely withdrawn. The decisions on the part of the State arrived at on 24.08.2007 and 29.01.2010 were clearly a result of fraud on power and cannot be said to be bona fide exercise of power. In our view, the initiation of class action and filing of Writ Petition in the present matter was perfectly justified and we reject all the submissions made by the learned Counsel appearing for various builders/private entities.32. We thus holdThe transactions entered into between the landholders and the concerned builders/private entities in the present case were not voluntary and were brought about by fraudulent influence. Certain `middlemen and builders enriched themselves at the expense of the landholders and public interest which was to be achieved by acquisition.b] The decisions dated 24.08.2007 and 29.01.2010 as well as entertaining of applications for grant of licence from those who had bought the lands after the acquisition was initiated, were not bona fide exercise of power by the State machinery. The exercise of power under the Act was guided by considerations extraneous to the provisions of the Act and as a matter of fact, was designed to enrich the builders/private entities. These decisions were nothing but fraud on power.Having so found that the exercise of power in arriving at decisions dated 24.08.2007 and 29.01.2010 as well as entertaining of applications for licence from those who had bought the lands after the acquisition was initiated, to be fraud on power; we now have to consider what relief be granted in the present matter. The relief to be granted must depend upon who the real victim is and to what extent solace can be granted to such real victim. If the landholders are considered to be the real victim, Mr. Dhruv Mehta, learned Senior Advocate is absolutely right in his submissions. If the result of forcing land holders to enter into unnatural and unreasonable bargain was achieved by wrongful utilization of the power conferred under the Act, in its writ jurisdiction a superior court would be justified in granting the relief of invalidating such transaction as a consequential relief, while holding the State action to be bad and invalid. The law laid down by this Court is quite clear and the objection that instead of a class action in the realm of public law, each individual land holder must make good his submissions on individual facts and seek relief of annulment of transaction entered into by him has to be rejected. To the extent the unnatural and unreasonable bargain was forced upon the landholders, there would be justification in granting such relief. But in the circumstances, the public interest which the acquisition was intended to achieve will never be sub83 served. It is nobodys case that public interest was adequately achieved and therefore the acquisition was required to be dropped. The fact that other acquisitions have been completed and have attained the required objective is a pointer in the direction that there was nothing wrong with the initiation but somewhere along while the process was on, it was completely hijacked by vested interests. We cannot, therefore, grant mere declaration invalidating the transaction and grant relief of restoring status ante. The real and substantial relief would be in restoring the situation where the process of acquisition is made free from such supervening vested interests and is enabled to achieve the objective that the acquisition was intended to subserve.34. At this stage an aspect needs elaboration and clarification. In Uddar Gagan (supra) the proceedings for acquisition under the Act had culminated in passing of an award. After the declaration of award, the lands were withdrawn from acquisition under the provisions of Section 48 of the Act. In terms of the directions issued by this Court in paragraph 33 in Uddar Gagan (supra) the withdrawal under Section 48 of the Act was set aside and the acquisition and award were sustained by this Court. In essence therefore, the lands in question continued to be under acquisition and appropriate directions were thereafter passed by this Court adjusting the competing claims of the concerned parties. In the present case, unlike Uddar Gagan (supra) the acquisition was dropped just two days before the day the award was to be pronounced. It is true that the entire process right upto publishing the date for pronouncement of award was validly undertaken, every possible submission was placed on record and all contentions were taken by the persons or parties interested. It was not as if any person or any party was denied any chance of raising objections or making submissions. The acquisition was dropped for reasons, which in our considered view were not germane at all and the entire exercise of dropping the acquisition was fraud on power. If that fraud on power is to be invalidated, the real and substantial restoration would be to ensure that the acquisition proceeds in the logical direction and the public purpose isIn a way, the directions required in the present matter may go beyond what Uddar Gagan (supra) did.Wherever there has been fraud on power, the duty of the Court is not only to set aside such exercise of power but to see that there is no unjust enrichment directly or indirectly as a result thereof and there is full and substantial restoration. Going by the principles laid down by this Court in Indian Council forAction (Supra) unjust retention of benefit would be completely against the fundamental principles of justice, equity and good conscience. It was observed therein that so long as the deprivation of a party has not been fully compensated for, injustice to that extent continues. Having found that there was a clear case of fraud on power as a result of which unnatural and unreasonable gains have been derived by certain builders/private entities, we consider it our duty to grant full restitution. The restoration in real and substantial terms has to ensure that the public purpose, the acquisition was intended to achieve, standsIn our considered view, this is an appropriate case where this Court has to declare that there was a completed acquisition and the award deemed to have been passed on the date when it was supposed to be pronounced i.e. on 26.08.2007. The suggested relief by the learned Amicus Curiae is also on similarit is through the acts on part of the landholders that the builders/private entities were brought on the scene, we dont hold them to be pari delicto alongwith builders/private respondents. But at the same time they cannot be given benefit of annulment of transactions and restoration of their holdings. The greater victim in the matter was the public interest. The land holders in any case had received considerations which were greater than what was awarded in Awards dated 09.03.2006 and 24.02.2007, which were the most proximate awards in terms of time. However, even when we propose to take the matter to its logical end and say that there was a deemed award, those who had not sold away their holdings and had not in any manner either directly or indirectly, tried to jeopardize the process of acquisition, cannot at this length of time be subjected to any prejudice. We will therefore have to exclude that body of landholders who had not transferred their holdings unlike the writ petitioners and similarly situated landholders, so also the purchasers of individual apartments from the width of our directions. Though fraud vitiates every resultant action and on that principle every beneficiary/ purchaser in subsequent transaction must restore such benefit, an exception has to be made in favour of individual purchasers of flats or apartments who are being left undisturbed while moulding the relief. Any payments made by them can be adjusted towards the amounts payable to the colonizer and their possession can be regularized by HUDA/HSIDC on suitable conditions by making allotment to them. This aspect will stand covered by directions issued hereafter.