Prem Raj vs Land and Building Department and Others

V.K. Jain, J.—The petitioner in W.P. (C) No. 3036/2013, namely, Shri Prem Raj and the petitioner in W.P. (C) No. 3058/2013, namely, Shri Giri Raj along with their another brother Shri Megh Raj jointly purchased agriculture land situated in Village Khazirabad vide sale deed executed in the year 1979. The aforesaid land was notified on 23.06.1989 u/s 4 of Land Acquisition Act. The possession of the said land was taken on 27.12.1990 and the Award being Award No. 18/92-93 came to be passed in the year 1992-93. The land was put at the disposal of DDA after taking possession from the petitioner. Pursuant to the scheme of Government of India for Large Scale Acquisition Development and Disposal of Land in Delhi, the petitioners separately applied for allotment of individual alternative plots from DDA. Under the scheme, the applications for allotment of alternative plots are to be submitted to Government of NCT of Delhi, which has to make recommendations to DDA for allotment of such plots. The separate applications filed by the petitioners Prem Raj and Giri Raj, were rejected by the respondent-Government of NCT of Delhi on the ground that they were not entitled to allotment of separate alternative plots. Being aggrieved from rejection of their application, the petitioners are before this Court. The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners is that there is no provision in the policy framed by Government of NCT of Delhi, which would exclude individual applications by joint owners of the acquired land. He submits that in case the land acquired by the Government was owned by more than one persons, all of them are entitled to separate alternative plots from DDA, depending upon their respective share in the acquired land. In this regard, the learned counsel for the petitioner has also drawn my attention to a provision in the scheme which stipulates that if the owner of the acquired land had died before issue of notification u/s 4 of Land Acquisition Act all his legal heirs would be entitled to allotment of individual alternative plots in accordance with their respective shares in the acquired land.

The writ petition has been opposed by the learned counsel for the respondent who submits that the scheme does not envisage individual allotments to the owners of the jointly held land. He has also pointed out that even in respect of legal heirs, in case the owner of the acquired land dies after issue of notification u/s 4 of Land Acquisition Act, all the legal heirs are entitled to joint allotment of one plot and cannot get individual alternative plots, depending upon their share in the acquired land. I have examined the policy of Government of NCT of Delhi with respect to allotment of alternative plots. There is absolutely no provision in the scheme which entitles the owners of jointly owned land to allotment of individual alternative plots, depending upon their share in the acquired land. Logically and equally, if the acquired land was owned by two or more persons, the alternative plot also should be allotted jointly to all of them, the acquired land itself being a jointly held land. Therefore, in the absence of any provision in the scheme, entitling joint owners of the acquired land to allotment of individual alternative plots, it cannot be said that all the joint owners should get individual alternative plots in accordance with their share in the acquired land. The benefit available to the legal heirs of a person who died before issue of notification u/s 4 of Land Acquisition Act cannot be extended to the petitioners, since that would amount to modification of the Scheme of the Government, by the Court; and the scheme by itself is not under challenge in this petition.

The writ petitions are devoid of any merit and are hereby dismissed.