More than five decades after Punjab encroached upon a distinguished Army officer’s ancestral land in Hoshiarpur by constricting a road, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the state to acquire the 10.5-marla area under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act.The matter was brought to the Bench’s notice after retired Lieutenant General Savneet Singh –– aggrieved by encroachment through construction of a road in 1972 by the PWD Department in Khudda, Hoshiarpur –– moved the court.The direction came as Division Bench of Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri and Justice Pravindra Singh Chauhan held that the landowner would be entitled to simple interest at 6 per cent per annum on the award amount from 1972. The Court also imposed Rs 50,000 costs on the state. The Bench further held that the state could not make acquisition conditional upon the landowner giving up his claim for compensation/damages for the state’s use of the land. It held that the condition imposed that the petitioner would not claim damages for use of the land was “not sustainable”.