High Court orders to expedite disposal of old arbitration cases, asks Haryana Govt to apprise DCs

Published on: 16 Jul 2023 at 11:27 AM

Published by: The fact news

Chandigarh, July 16

In a case that came up for hearing on July 7, the high court had passed the order while hearing a petition filed by Sanjeev Kumar – Landowner- seeking directions to DCs-cum-Arbitrators for speed up the disposal of the arbitration cases that has been pending for more than 10 years.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Haryana government to apprise the state deputy commissioners (DCs) to ensure speedy disposal of these cases that had arisen out of compulsory land acquisition under the NHAI Act, 1956 while noting that pending arbitration cases has been causing a huge financial burden on the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) on account of accruing interest.

The nodal advocate for NHAI, Abhilaksh Gaind, informed the court that this issue was not limited to the case in hand and contended that the pendency of such cases across the state is causing a huge financial burden on the NHAI because of accumulating interest.

The high court had also asked the Additional Advocate General of the state, Ankur Mittal, to make the highest authorities of the state to join and discuss the matter via video conferencing. Accordingly, Principal Secretary (PS) to Chief Minister (CM) Uma Shankar joined and after the deliberations, the court directed the PS to CM to find a practical way of early disposal of arbitration references pending before the DCs. He, however, informed the high court that the issue is under active consideration of the government and will be resolved at the earliest.

After considering the submissions made by the counsel of the NHAI and the landowner, a bench of Justice Harkesh Manuja directed for a status report to be filed.