Shimla, May 24 (UNI) In major relief to thousands of land losers affected by highway expansion and infrastructure projects, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has quashed the state government’s decade-old controversial notification which had fixed the land compensation multiplier at 1.0 for rural areas.
The division bench comprising Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Sushil Kukreja held the notification ultra vires to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
“This Court finds merit in the petitions, and the same are allowed. Accordingly, Notification dated 01.04.2015 (Annexure P-1) is quashed and set aside,” the judgment stated.
The bench directed the government to notify a multiplier of two in accordance with the Act and ordered the concerned Land Acquisition Collector to issue a supplementary award applying the correct multiplier.
Compensation, along with statutory benefits, is to be paid to the affected parties by September 30, 2025.
The court came down heavily on the state for arbitrarily reducing the multiplier factor. “The executive must abide by the provisions of the Act and cannot act contrary to it… The executive instructions cannot override the law,” Justice Chauhan observed. The court further ruled that the notification lacked legislative backing and unfairly discriminated against rural landowners, particularly those in remote areas.
Reacting to the judgment, Joginder Walia, convenor of the Bhumi Adhigrahan Prabhavit Manch, said, “This is a historic decision. For a decade we raised our voice against this injustice. Today, justice has been delivered.” He accused both the BJP and Congress of deceiving farmers by promising fair compensation but never implementing it.
Bailey Ram Kaundal, president of the Manch, said, “The state governments repeatedly misled farmers. This verdict is not just a legal victory, but a moral one.”
Local residents in affected areas, particularly along the Kiratpur-Nerchowk and Mandi-Pathankot four-lane corridors, expressed cautious optimism. “We were forced to accept meagre compensation earlier. This order gives us hope that we will be treated with dignity,” said Tara Devi, a landowner from Nerchowk.
Advocacy groups like the Kisan Sabha and Fourlane Sangharsh Samitis, which have long contested the legality of the 2015 notification, also welcomed the judgment.
“This verdict proves that the law still protects the rights of the vulnerable. It’s a message to the state to stop exploiting farmers for electoral gains,” said Amar Singh, a farmer and activist from Sundernagar.
The High Court’s ruling is likely to have a widespread impact on pending and future land acquisition cases across Himachal Pradesh, reaffirming that the state must uphold constitutional and statutory safeguards when acquiring land.
UNI ML RN