Suraj Bhan and Anr vs Land Acquisition Collector (SW) and Ors

Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)

This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.

Vide order dated 7^th February, 2026, this Court had taken serious note of the fact that the office of the Land Acquisition Collector [hereinafter ‘LAC’] is severely short staffed and there are several vacancies therein. This has had a cascading effect on the functioning of the LAC’s office. There is lag in giving instructions in matters which are being listed before the Court, Affidavits are also not filed on time and Counsels as not given instructions on time. Even the verification of records is delayed – leading to years of delays in payment of compensation, processing of reference applications etc.,

In fact several reference applications and compensation claims are not being processed due to lack of staff. Writ petitions are being filed in this Court on a daily basis. In that background, the following directions were issued vide order dated 7^th February, 2026:

The above order was directed to be served upon Mr. Sameer Vashisht, ld. Standing Counsel for Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (hereinafter, ‘GNCTD’). Certain correspondence and documents including a status report dated 6^th August, 2026 from the Services Department, GNCTD has been handed across today.

The first and foremost is a letter dated 3^rd August, 2026 addressed to the ld. Standing Counsel in which it is acknowledged that there is no sanctioned strength of the LAC in all districts in Delhi.

The total number of officials presently working in the LAC office in different districts are as under:

As an interim measure, the Services Department states that it is in the process of posting 15 Assistant Section Officers (hereinafter, ‘ASOs’) in the Revenue Department for posting in LAC to tackle the issue of short staff.

The Court has also perused the detailed letter dated 30^th July, 2026 written by Mr. Neeraj Semwal, Secretary (Revenue)-cum-Divisional Commissioner to Ms. Nandini Paliwal, Secretary, Services Department. In the said letter, the substantial shortage of ministerial staff has been highlighted in the following terms:

A perusal of the above would show that insofar as the LAC office is concerned, there is hardly any staff in all the districts and the number of officials are almost NIL or zero in most districts and in some the number of staff is in single digits.

Land acquisition matters affect the rights of citizens substantially as, for several years, compensation claims are not processed despite the land being acquired for infrastructural projects. The posting of staff is absolutely critical for the functioning of the LAC office as also dealing with the matters which are pending in Courts. In the opinion of this Court, the government needs to take immediate steps to recruit the staff for posting in the LAC offices.

In order to have an assessment as to how many staff members would be required in each of the districts, the Court has queried Mr. Radhey Shyam Meena, who is the LAC (Outer North) and is present in Court. He submits that in all the three divisions i.e., Mundka, Narela and Bawana, there is no staff which is posted. There is only one Section Officer, Mr. Tarun Malik, who is working. As per him, the requirement in each of the districts would depend upon the case load in the said district, however, at the bare minimum, the following would be the staff which would be required:

The above numbers would show that at least 10 people would be required in each of the districts, which is almost NIL as on date.

Ms. Nandini Paliwal, Secretary, Services Department is, accordingly, directed to file a status report, after posting at least 4-5 staff members for each District to the Revenue Department as an interim measure, so that they can be posted with the LAC offices and, thereafter, give a timeline for taking steps for regular recruitment of officials for the LAC offices. The Services Department shall also file a status report in respect of the communication dated 30^th July 2026, for posting of staff to the Revenue Department. The said status report shall be filed within a period of two weeks.

List on 9^th September, 2026.