Jalandhar: The district administration here on Wednesday filed an appeal against a court-ordered auction of the deputy commissioner’s residence for paying enhanced compensation to an 80-year-old man whose land was acquired in 1987.
The court of civil judge (senior division) Rashmi Sharma had ordered the auction of DC’s residence on June 13, on an application filed by Ajit Singh, who sought payment of Rs 7 crore as compensation for his land acquired by Jalandhar Improvement Trust in October 1987. The Punjab and Haryana high court had ordered the payment of enhanced compensation on February 28, 2017. The local court will hear the administration’s appeal on Thursday.
The Supreme Court has already rejected the trust’s appeal against the HC order. Ajit Singh moved court so that the administration complied with the HC order. PWD executive engineer Ginder Singh filed the application on district administration’s behalf on Wednesday.
In the petition, the administration has said the court should order the auction of properties of the improvement trust and not of the state government, as the matter concerned an individual and the trust, an autonomous body. It said the DC’s residence was a property of the state government, so it should not be auctioned.
Ajit Singh’s 60 kanals (seven and half acre) of farmland in Reru village was acquired by the JIT for developing Transport Nagar and compensation of Rs 2,000 per marla was fixed. However, he challeneged the compensation in Land Acquisition Compensation Tribunal, which fixed the rate at Rs 4,500 per marla. He then moved the high court, which, on February 28, 2017, ordered a compensation of Rs 8,727 per marla along with the interest.