STATE OF HARYANA Vs. DEVANDER SAGAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CIVIL APPEAL No. 318 OF 2011

(2.) The State of Haryana had issued a Notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1984 ('L.A. Act' for brevity) on 18.1.2001 to acquire 12.18 acres of land falling in Village Khera Markanda and 11.64 acres of land falling in Village Ratgal as mentioned in the Schedule thereto for the construction of a fell-storm sewer, a sewage-treatment plant and a crematorium (Shamshan Ghat) at Kurukshetra. Simultaneous with the issuance of this Notification, the Appellant State had also invoked the urgency provisions contained in Sections 17(1) and 17(4), thereby denying to the landowners (some of whom are the Respondents before us) the opportunity to file Objections under Section 5A of the L.A. Act. A Declaration under Section 6 of the L.A. Act was issued the very next day, i.e. 19.1.2001. It was at this juncture that the Respondents/Landowners filed C.W.P. No. 2503 of 2002 and C.W.P. No. 8696 of 2002, (along with a third party namely Neelam Ram, the petitioner in C.W.P. No. 4887 of 2002) challenging the Section 4 Notification dated 18.1.2001 and the Section 6 Declaration dated 19.1.2001.

(3.) It will be pertinent to point out that by the time interim orders came to be passed in the Writ Petitions by the Division Bench on 7.2.2002, the one year period prescribed in the statute to advance from Notification to Declaration stage had already elapsed. It is also relevant to record that notwithstanding the interim order dated 7.2.2002, the Appellant State passed an Award on the next day, namely 8.2.2002, obviously oblivious of those interim orders. It also took possession of certain parts of the Scheduled lands. The one year prescription having been transgressed, the subject acquisition would have met its statutory death but for the feature that the urgency provisions had been invoked by the State in the event without legal propriety. The time table established under the L.A. Act requires to be recalled. Upon the publication of a Notification, affected landowners are required to file Objections within thirty days. Although no period has been prescribed for disposal of Objections by the Collector, this exercise must reach its culmination within one year of the Notification's issuance. If these actions are so done, the Government must direct the Collector to "take order for the acquisition of the land" which is a statutory provision which smacks superficiality. The Collector must also mark and measure the land in question, cause public notice to be given of the Government's intention to take possession of the land and invite claims for compensation etc. After deciding any objection or representation received from the interested parties, an Award has to be made within two years of the Declaration, failing which the entire acquisition proceedings would lapse. Of course the period covered by stay orders granted by a Court would be excluded. Parliament was, as is manifestly evident, alive to the injury that would inexorably visit the landowners if acquisition proceedings were not circumscribed by time, as compensation is pegged to the date of the Notification. The entire exercise has to be completed within three years. This time prescription is thus obviously intended to ensure that the landowners whose lands have been expropriated on the State's continuing powers of eminent domain receive the market price for their property in close proximity of the time of acquisition. These persons would thus be in a position to purchase alternate property, which indubitably would not be possible if the compensation award is implemented after delay. Courts must be ever vigilant and resolute in protecting these persons from unfair treatment by the State. Thankfully, Parliament has, in terms of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013, provided amelioration against Governmental apathy.