Gurgaon: A city court has ordered the attachment of salaries of two senior officials of Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP). On Tuesday, the court ordered the attachment of the salaries of chief control officer (CCF) and chief administrator in Panchkula after the HSVP failed to pay enhanced compensation to a landowner, whose land was acquired 13 years back, despite a Punjab and Haryana high court order passed in 2022.Additional district judge Sudeep Goel passed the order in an execution petition filed by Savita from Mangolpur Kalan in Delhi, whose half an acre of land in Daultabad village was acquired by HSVP in 2013. The district court enhanced the compensation for Savita’s acquired land to Rs 3.1 crore in 2018. She later filed a regular first appeal before the HC, which allowed it in Feb 2022 and enhanced the compensation to Rs 7.7 crore per acre. With the compensation still unpaid, she was compelled to initiate execution proceedings against HSVP and the land acquisition authorities.The order followed repeated attempts to recover the compensation through legal proceedings. A warrant of arrest issued against the land acquisition collector in the city and HSVP administrator (Gurgaon) had been returned unexecuted. During the proceedings, the authorities submitted that the necessary calculations had been prepared and city HSVP office had forwarded the matter to its finance office in Panchkula for payment.The court observed that a govt undertaking had sufficient means to satisfy the decree but it had not made the payment. It dispensed with the requirement of issuing a show-cause notice before ordering the attachment. The order puts the onus on the HSVP officials concerned to “ensure compliance” with the compensation decree before the matter comes up again on Dec 4.The court also directed that a warrant for attachment of the judgment debtors’ property be issued for the next date of hearing, subject to the award-holder filing a list of properties. In its Oct 27 order, the court expressed concern over the failure to present compensation calculations before it, observing that delays or incorrect calculations should not obstruct timely compliance with judicial directions. Citing Supreme Court and HC judgments on the time-bound disposal of execution petitions, the court stressed that govt departments were duty-bound to comply with court orders. It also referred to SC’s observations in Ultra-Tech Cement Ltd v Mast Ram & Others that the state must ensure timely compensation to people whose land is acquired for public purposes.The court observed that public authorities could not approach such matters mechanically and emphasised the “need for higher officials to ensure that govt employees discharged their responsibilities diligently.” Advocate Jagjeet Singh, who represented Savita, said delays in payment of enhanced compensation had forced landowners to repeatedly approach courts to recover money awarded to them. He claimed that more than 5,000 similar petitions were pending before courts, adding to judicial workload that could be avoided if authorities paid compensation within a stipulated period.Singh said prolonged delays also increased the financial burden on govt because of interest payable on outstanding compensation. He urged Haryana govt to establish a transparent, time-bound mechanism for disbursing compensation and ensuring that landowners did not have to depend on intermediaries to secure payments due to them.
