7 days ago
Land pooling policy put on hold till next hearing on Aug 7: Punjab AG submits in HC
CHANDIGARH
: The
Punjab
advocate general on Wednesday submitted in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the land pooling policy would be kept on hold and no further steps would be taken till the next hearing on Thursday.
The submission came on a petition filed by Gurdeep Singh Gill, who challenged the Punjab government's land pooling scheme.
The court has fixed Thursday (August 7) as the next date of hearing.
As the matter came up for hearing on Wednesday, the court asked the Punjab government whether there was any provision in the policy for rehabilitation of the landless labourers for their sustenance.
The state has also been directed to inform the court whether a social impact assessment was carried out before notifying the land pooling policy.
"He (the AG) shall also inform this court if an environmental impact assessment had been carried out before notifying the policy," a division bench of Justices Anupinder Singh Grewal and Deepak Manchanda said.
The court said it has been directed by the Supreme Court in the case of 'Resident's Welfare Association and another vs Union Territory of Chandigarh (2023)' that before permitting urban development, an environmental impact assessment study should be conducted.
"Learned advocate general, Punjab, shall also inform this court as to whether there is any provision in the policy for rehabilitation of the landless labourers and others, who do not own any land but are dependent on land for their sustenance," the bench said.
"He submits that the policy would be kept on hold and no further steps would be taken till the next date of hearing," it said.
Gill, the Ludhiana-based petitioner, had sought directions to quash the state government notification dated June 24 along with the land pooling policy 2025 for being ultra vires and an act of "colourable legislation", violating fundamental rights.
The petitioner submitted that the policy is purported to be under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, but there is no such provision which empowers the state to frame such a policy as the provisions of the Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995, is the only Act under which this policy could be framed.
"No such social impact assessment report was either prepared or published, as per the provisions of law. Moreover, none of the gram panchayats or gram sabhas were approached or consulted by the respondents before bringing the land pooling policy, which is a clear disregard of the provisions mandated under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013," the petition said.
"Since there is no such provision of law under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, to frame the land pooling policy, therefore, there lies no mechanism or forum to challenge such policy and the petitioner is left with no remedy to redress his grievance," it said.
The AAP government has been facing flak from the opposition parties and various farmer bodies, which have dubbed its land pooling policy a "looting" scheme to "rob" the farmers of their fertile land.
AAP has hit out at the opposition parties for spreading "misleading propaganda" against the state government's policy, with party leaders describing it as "farmers-friendly".
The Punjab Cabinet in June gave its nod to the land pooling policy and asserted that not a single yard will be forcibly acquired from the land owners.
Under the land pooling policy, an owner will be given 1,000 square yard of residential plot and 200 square yard of commercial plot in fully developed land in lieu of one acre of land, the state government had said.
