SYED MAQBOOL ALI Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) Certain lands in village Sarai Badli and Ibrahimpur, Danda, Pargana Kora, District Fatehpur, UP, were acquired for construction of a six Kilometre road from Jahanabad to Garhi Jafraganj in the year 1982 and compensation was paid to the land owners in the year 1983.

(3.) In the year 1996, the Appellant submitted a complaint to the Lokayukta alleging that his plots (bearing No. 87/5, 88, 90, and 232 in Sarai Badli and plot No. 580/5 and 602/1 in Ibrahimpur Danda) were included in the said acquisition; that in 1995 when he got his other lands measured, he found that his plots bearing Nos. 27, 57, 58, 450, 451 and 452 (new numbers 103, 90, 93/1, 232/2, 231/2 and 229/5) measuring 0.7068 Hectare had been illegally and unauthorisedly used for constructing the road. On enquiry by the Lok Ayukta, the Addl. District Magistrate (Land Acquisition) informed that there was a possibility of the acquired lands being left out and the road being constructed in the adjoining lands which were not acquired. On the other hand, the concerned Executive Engineer, PWD, informed the Lok Ayukta that the Khasra numbers in respect of which the Appellant alleged encroachment and claimed compensation had never stood in his name and that even for the lands acquired in 1982, the compensation was paid to Mohammed Hussain alias Bhola and others and not to the Appellant. The said complaint was however closed on 7.9.1999 as time barred, in view of the delay of 12 years in seeking relief. Thereafter, the Appellant approached the High Court in the year 2000 seeking a direction to the Respondents to pay compensation in regard to the extra land used and occupied by Respondents by diverting the road from its original alignment. The said writ petition was dismissed by order dated 9.7.2007 on the ground that Petitioner can have recourse to Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (Act for short), if he wanted enhancement of compensation. The review petition filed by the Appellant was dismissed on 22.2.2008. The said orders are challenged in these appeals by special leave.