The Supreme Court has, in a special leave petition (SLP), ordered the maintenance of status quo in relation to land belonging to 91 petitioners of different villages in Mahendragarh district until the next hearing.
“However, this order shall not preclude the State from exercising its right of eminent domain under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013,” said a recent order passed by a Bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran in the SLP titled ‘Mool Chand and Ors vs the State of Haryana and Ors’.
The matter pertains to the acquisition of land for the development of the Integrated Multi-modal Logistics Hub (IMLH) project being developed in Nangal Chaudhary area of the district. The land in question belongs to residents of Talot, Ghataser and Basirpur villages.
The Bench has ordered the re-listing of the application and SLP on September 7, along with SLPs titled ‘Madhu Bala and Ors vs State of Haryana and Ors’ and ‘The State of Haryana and Ors Vs Mool Chand and Ors’. Some villagers whose land was under acquisition had earlier moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court for grant of enhanced compensation. The High Court passed its final judgment in the matter on September 9, 2024, following which the villagers filed an SLP with the Supreme Court.
As per the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), the total land requirement for the IMLH project is 886 acres, of which about 698 acres were procured and transferred to the project SPV by the state government.
