Surya Kant, J.@mdashThis order shall dispose of Civil Writ Petition Nos. 420 & 421 of 1992 us common issues are involved in both these cases.
For brevity, the facts are being extracted from Civil Writ Petition No. 420 of 1992.
The petitioners are aggrieved by the notifications dated 23.1.1990 and 22.1.1991 issued under Sections 4 & 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as ''the Act''), respectively, to the extent their residential houses have also been acquired.
2. While the residential houses of the petitioners in civil writ petition No. 420 of 1992 are located in Khasra Nos. 18/1/1 of Rectangle No. 215 on the land measuring 1441 square yards, the house of petitioner in civil writ petition No. 421 of 1992 is located in khasra Nos. 23 & 24/1 of Rectangle No. 225 on the land measuring 3 kanal 18 marlas.
3. The fact that there existed the residential houses at the time of issuance of notification u/s 4 of the Act is not disputed as the respondents themselves have released the constructed portion of the petitioners'' houses. The grievance of the petitioners in civil writ petition No. 420 of 1992 is that even when there are three families living jointly in their residential house which is spread over the land measuring 1441 square yards, only 366 square yard area has been released. Similarly, in civil writ petition No. 421 of 1992, the petitioners are said to have constructed house over three kanals of land out of which only 5 marlas has been released.
4. We have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the photographs of the residential houses of petitioners produced before us during the course of hearing. If the houses as depicted in the photographs are in existence at the site, we are of the considered view that besides equivalent size of open space, other constructed portions too deserve to be released from acquisition in consonance with the Government policy dated 26.10.2007 as amended vide another Government policy dated 24.1.2011 which has been upheld by the Hon''ble Supreme Court in
5. The other reason persuading us to direct the release of more open space is that it appears from the photographs that the petitioners'' houses are surrounded by fully developed colony and hardly any public purpose can be achieved by retaining their small piece of land/residential houses. We, therefore, allow these writ petitions with a direction to the respondents to conduct a fresh survey/demarcation of constructed portion of the petitioners'' residential houses and besides releasing their constructed portion/houses, equivalent amount of open space is also directed to be released to enable the petitioners to enjoy their residential properties. Dasti.
