CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday set aside the decision of the Haryana government of allotting 350 acres of land to Delhi Land and Finance (DLF) in Wazirabad, Gurgaon in 2010.
A division bench headed by Justice Surya Kant has directed the state government to auction the land within a month through global bidding and added that DLF can participate in the fresh bidding process. The bench, however, upheld the land acquisition process of the state government.
The court had in 2012 restrained DLF from carrying out any construction and also from creating any third party rights. DLF had planned a project ‘Magnolias’ at the land which was allotted to it in Wazirabad in which it planned to build air conditioned golf villas and apartments along with a golf course.
The decision came on a bunch of petition filed by Om Prakash Mukadam and other villagers challenging the acquisition and transfer of the land to DLF, citing it was a village common land. The petitioners had argued that the Haryana government had acquired the prime land of Wazirabad village so that DLF could establish its ‘dream project’ on it.
The land is prime realty due to its proximity to south Delhi. It was transferred to DLF after a bid of Rs 1,750 crore at Rs 12,000 per sq m. However, the petitioners alleged that the actual cost of the land is around Rs 40,000 crore.
Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) had acquired around 350 acres in Wazirabad twice. At first 75 acres were acquired on September 8, 1997 and then around 275 acres were acquired on August 8, 2003. Subsequently, HUDA transferred the land to Haryana State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), which on February 9, 2010 transferred it to DLF on free hold basis.
DLF had emerged as the only bidder for the 350-acre project after bids by Unitech and Malaysia-based Consortium could not qualify on technical grounds.