A Bench comprising Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice R Banumathi passed the order, accepting the contention of senior advocate JS Attri that the HC had directed the authorities to take back such land on a misinterpretation of the HP Nautor Land Rules 1968.
Attri said the government had framed the policy for effective utilisation of government-owned wasteland lying outside towns and reserved and protected forests to increase the outputs from horticulture, agriculture and animal husbandry and make the state self-sufficient in food production. Under the scheme, each family was allowed to use 20 bighas of land.
The income criterion was meant only for according priority for allowing the use of such land, not to exclude any category altogether, but the HC had ruled that the scheme was not meant for government employees, he pleaded.
The apex court also agreed to hear the state government’s appeal in detail by granting leave for the purpose. The state has come in appeal against the five directives of the HC issued on June 25, 2015, in the case of Narinder Lal Negi. Since detailed hearings begin in such cases only after about five years, the SC’s interim relief granted today will stand at least till then.
The HC had asked the Financial Commissioners (FCs) to call for the records of 5,769 cases in which government employees and those with income above Rs 2,000 had been granted nautor land and assess if these were in consonance with the 1968 rules. The HC had set a one-year deadline for the exercise and directed the FCs to resume the possession of all land given in violation of the rules and those which were being misused for purposes not covered under the scheme.
If the government had acquired such land for any public purpose and paid compensation, the amount paid therein should be recovered with 9 per cent interest, the HC had held. The SC has effectively restrained the FCs from going ahead with the exercise.
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