SC issues notice to Sodhi family on Punjab’s land compensation plea
The Supreme Court has issued notice to Punjab sports minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi and others in a land acquisition matter in which the state public works department (PWD), in December 2020, had filed a recovery suit against Sodhi and family. The Punjab government had sought review of the SC order of 2019, granting relief to the Sodhi family. On May 3, the SC bench of justice Uday Umesh Lalit and justice Dinesh Maheshwari heard the review petition and issued the notice. HT has been following the matter closely.
In 2014, the Sodhi family received a compensation of ₹1.8 crore against land acquired by the state government for a road project, after they had moved court. In 2015, a Ferozepur court said, on a plea from Sodhi, that they were entitled to re-determine the compensation of the acquired land in 2012, as per the new land acquisition Act, which came into force in 2014. In 2017, the Punjab and Haryana high court upheld the district court order, which was subsequently upheld by the Supreme Court in 2019.
The SC order states that there
was a delay of 544 days in filing the review petition. The order adds the application seeking condonation of delay states inter alia that the land in question were subject matter of acquisition initiated in 1962, which attained finality, and compensation was paid to claimants.
“Issue notice on the application for condonation of delay as well as on the review petitions, returnable on July 16, 2021, and let these review petitions be listed in open court,” the order added. In December 2020, the PWD had filed a recovery suit against minister Sodhi, alias Guru Gurmeet Singh, and his family members — brother Guru Hardeep Singh and nephews, Prabhjot Singh and Jasdeep Singh — in a Guru Har Sahai court for allegedly pocketing double compensation for the land in question. One Joginder Singh was also named in the plea.
The department has also made Guru Har Sahai SDM a respondent. The land at Mohanki Attar village had been acquired for the Ferozepur-fazilka-guru Har Sahai road. The family received ₹1.8 crore compensation in 2013 for the land after re-acquisition in 2012, which, as per record, had also been acquired in 1962 for ₹7,384. The land comprised 55 kanal and 6 marla belonging to Sodhi and 38 kanal of his nephew Jasdeep Sodhi (son of Hardeep Singh).
In March 2020, a Punjab government sub-committee found that the Sodhi family had got double compensation. In February 2021, the Punjab and Haryana high court had also stayed the disbursement of re-determined compensation. The court was hearing a letter patents appeal (LPA) filed by Punjab government challenging the single bench order in the contempt petition filed by the minister’s brother Guru Hardeep Singh in 2018.