AGRA DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, AGRA Vs. ANEK SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad in Civil Miscellaneous Writ Petition No.13927 of 2016 by which the High Court has allowed the said writ petition preferred by the respondents herein original writ petitioners and has held that the acquisition proceedings with respect to the land in question shall be deemed to have lapsed under Sub-­sec. (2) of Sec. 24 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act 2013'), the Agra Development Authority, Agra has preferred the present appeal.

(2.) We have heard learned counsel for the respective parties. We have perused and considered the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court.

(3.) Before the High Court it was the specific case on behalf of the Agra Development Authority - appellant herein that as such the possession of the land in question was already taken over and even the name of the Authority was mutated in the revenue records. It was also the specific case on behalf of the Authority that possession of the land in question was with them but the original writ petitioners illegally occupied it again. It was also the case on behalf of the Authority that the development works have already been carried out on the land in question and the entire compensation had already been deposited with the Special Land Acquisition Officer. It was also the case on behalf of the Authority that the original writ petitioners deliberately did not take the compensation for the remaining plot measuring 6 Biswa and 15 Biswansi and therefore, on account of the fault of the writ petitioners, the acquisition proceedings cannot lapse. However, by the impugned judgment and order the High Court has held and declared that the acquisition proceedings with respect to the land in question shall be deemed to have lapsed under subsec. (2) of Sec. 24 of the Act, 2013 on the ground that the amount of compensation was not actually paid to the land owners. While holding so the High Court has relied upon and considered the decision of this Court in the case of Pune Municipal Corporation and another versus Harakchand Misirimal Solanki and others reported in (2014) 3 SCC 183.