State of Haryana & Ors. vs. Niranjan Singh & Ors. Etc.
Background
The State of Haryana had acquired land in Kurukshetra in 1987-2002 for residential, commercial, and institutional development. Over the years, the State released large chunks of this acquired land back to various landowners, either voluntarily or following High Court orders, leaving only small parcels, including plots belonging to Niranjan Singh and others, still under acquisition. These remaining landowners approached the High Court arguing that continuing to hold only their land while releasing everyone else's similarly-situated land was discriminatory and violated Article 14 (equality). The Punjab and Haryana High Court agreed and ordered release of their land too. The State (and, in one connected matter, beneficiaries of the acquisition) appealed to the Supreme Court across three separate writ petitions involving different plots: one needed for a proposed shopping mall/parking, one already used for a sewage line (Rs. 17 crore already spent), and one needed for road widening.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court strongly criticized the State's arbitrary and favoritism-driven pattern of releasing land over the years, calling it "highly deprecable," and held that as to the shopping-mall plot (where nearly all similarly-placed land had already been released), the High Court was right to direct release on grounds of parity and Article 14. The Court declined to interfere there. However, for the other two plots, the outcome was different: since the land already used for the sewage line was physically consumed by a completed public utility on which crores had already been spent, and the road-widening land was needed for a live public project with the acquisition process fully completed (award passed, compensation paid, possession taken), the Court held these acquisitions should not have been quashed and reinstated the acquisitions, overturning the High Court on those two points. The Court cautioned the State Government to stop treating land release as a favor to influential persons and to use acquired land strictly for the public purpose for which it was taken.
Lesson Learnt
A citizen can invoke the constitutional guarantee of equality (Article 14) to demand release of their acquired land when the government has arbitrarily released similarly-situated land to others, but this argument does not override a live, completed public purpose (like an already-built sewage line or land genuinely needed for road widening); courts examine each plot's facts independently rather than applying a blanket rule.