EXECUTIVE ENGINEER, GOSIKHURD PROJECT AMBADI, BHANDARA, MAHARASHTRA VIDARBHA IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION Vs. MAHESH AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The legal issue that arises in these appeals relates to interpretation of Section 24(1)(a) of The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 ( '2013 Act ', for short), and in particular the question:

(3.) In order to answer the legal question, some elemental facts are required to be noted. The State of Maharashtra, on 16th June 2011, had issued a notification under Section 4 of the 1894 Act for the' acquisition of 203.86 hectares of land in village Adyal, District Bhandara, Maharashtra for the Gosikhurd Project. This was followed by publication of declarations under Section 6 of the 1894 Act, the last of which is dated 8th August 2012. Vide Gazette Notification No. S.O. 3729(E) dated 19th December 2013, the 2013 Act came into force on 1st January 2014, and in terms of Section 114 of the 2013 Act, the 1894 Act was repealed. On 30th October 2014, the Special Land Acquisition Officer purportedly made an award in terms of clause (a) to Section 24(1) of the 2013 Act.