Chandigarh | Jun 02, 2015: Acting on a petition by 14 residents of a village in Yamuna Nagar district for quashing a notice for auctioning their land for mining purposes, the vacation Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed not only their dispossession from land but also mining activity on it.

Issuing notice of motion to Haryana and other respondents for July 31, the Bench of Justice Mahesh Grover and Justice Amit Rawal asserted: “Meanwhile, mining activities from the petitioners’ land shall remain stayed and the petitioners shall not be dispossessed from their land.

In their petition, Jagdish Kumar and other residents of Begumpur village had earlier contended that the notice was issued in November, 2013, and April this year for putting their land to auction for mines and minerals “without giving any opportunity of hearing”.

The petitioners told the court that their land was being taken away without compensation and also without adopting the procedure laid down under the Land Acquisition Act.

Their counsel, Jagdish Manchanda, added the area mentioned in the notice was to be auctioned for mining of boulder, gravel and sand minor mineral, which was illegal, arbitrary, unjust and improper.

He added it was also against the directions issued by the High Court as well as the Supreme Court as it was fertile agriculture land. Directions were also sought to the respondents to release their “agricultural, fertile land” from “notified mining area as well as area in the auction notice”.

(Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/)