‘Compensation or I’ll Take Back My Land’: 86-Year-Old Puts Ultimatum on NH-11 in Rewari

An 86-year-old landowner in Haryana’s Rewari has issued a dramatic ultimatum to authorities, threatening to reclaim land acquired for a highway project if he does not receive the compensation ordered by the court.

Pratap Singh Yadav, a resident of Pithrawas village, has installed a public notice board on the divider of National Highway 11 warning that he will take back possession of 1,225 square metres of land acquired for the highway if the payment is not made within two days. The board states that the National Highways Authority of India will be responsible for any inconvenience caused to the public.

According to Yadav, he had established an Indian Oil Corporation petrol pump near Khori in 2015 after obtaining Change of Land Use (CLU) permission. Around five years ago, the NHAI acquired the land for widening the Rewari–Narnaul stretch of NH-11.

However, the compensation was calculated by treating the land as agricultural rather than commercial, despite the presence of the petrol pump. Authorities had initially fixed the compensation amount for the 1,225 sq m plot at ₹23.49 lakh, which Yadav refused to accept and challenged in court.

Despite the matter being pending, the petrol pump structure was demolished in July 2022, and the possession of the land was taken for the highway project. The matter then came before the arbitrator, who is also the district Deputy Commissioner. In his orders dated February 11, July 1, and August 6, 2025, the arbitrator held that the land should be treated as commercial and that the authorities should pay the revised compensation amount along with interest. The NHAI had challenged the decision in the District and Sessions Judge G.S. Wadhwa’s court in Rewari. However, on March 2, 2026, the court had upheld the decision taken by the arbitrator and dismissed the objections filed by the authority.

Despite the decision, Yadav says that the compensation is still not being released. He says that due to the acquisition of his petrol pump and commercial land, he had incurred a loss of approximately ₹1.59 crore.

Frustrated by the long period of legal battle, the octogenarian says that in case the compensation is not released within 48 hours, he would take back his land from the highway authority.