The Supreme Court in a landmark judgment has given a huge relief to the farmers and landowners, while quashing the “illegal” and “deceptive” licensing of 280 acres of land in Rohtak, Haryana in 2006 to Uddar Gaggan Properties Ltd.

“The unholy nexus to promote the private interests” of builders by “transfer of resources of poor for the benefit of the rich”, is “gross abuse of law” and “clear fraud” referred in the judgement, has been detailed in a series of media exposes, from October 8, 2012, first about the irregularities in the property dealings involving real estate major DLF and Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son Robert Vadra, while later going on to uncover Hooda’s modus operandi to favor a host of other builders, including Uddar Gaggan.

The facts disclosed, had pointed to Hooda’s motivation in licensing a staggering 24,825 acres of land during his 10-year tenure as Chief Minister, as against just 8,550.32 acres by successive Chief Ministers in the 23 years preceding Mr. Hooda’s rise to power in 2004.

Under the Land Acquisition Act 1894, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) have powers to acquire land under Section 4 & 6 through the issuance of notifications, while the award of licence is announced under Section 9.

The SC judgement takes cognizance of the fact that “the builder did not own an inch of land, yet every licence was addressed to it and sent with a specific enclosure that Uddar Gaggan was the sole owner of the licensed and released land. The issuance of license, in our considered view, was a fraud played on the policy behind the 1975 Act”.

“Here is a case where artificial reasons were created, the records were fudged with the aid of the Deputy Commissioner, Rohtak, to mislead the fact that the possession of acquired land was not taken while announcing the Award. The responsible officers of the State Government, in their anxiety to help out Uddar Gaggan, have completely overlooked the interest of landowners or of the General Public to whom thousands of plots could have been allotted at a fairly low price through the aegis of HUDA”.

The modus operandi was using Section 4, the State intimates landowners that the government requires those specific parcels of land for ‘public purpose’. At this stage, builders enter into agreements to sell / collaborate with landowners and farmers, offering them a modest premium over the government’s prevailing compensation rate.

By Premji