DELHI DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY Vs. SUKHBIR SINGH & OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted in S.L.P(C) No. 28304 of 2015.

(2.) These two appeals revisit the q uestion of the correct construction of Section 24(2) of The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (hereinafter referred to as "the 2013 Act"). We are constrained to observe that we are hearing these matters despite the fact that the law has been settled in Pune Municipal Corporation v. H.M. Solanki, 2014 (3) SCC 183, which is now stare decisis in that it has been followed in a large number of judgments Bimla Devi & Ors. v. State of Haryana & Ors. (2014) 6 SCC 583 at para 3; Union of India (UOI) and Ors. v. Shiv Raj and Ors. (2014) 6 SCC 564 at para 22; Sree Balaji Nagar Residential Association v. State of Tamil Nadu (2015) 3 SCC 353 at para 14; State of Haryana v. Vinod Oil and General Mills 2014 (15) SCC 410 at para 21; Sita Ram v. State of Haryana and Anr. (2015) 3 SCC 597 at paras 19, 21; Ram Kishan & Ors v. State of Haryana & Ors. (2015) 4 SCC 347 at paras 8, 9, 12; Velaxan Kumar v. Union of India & Ors. 2015 (4) SCC 325 at paras 15, 16, 17; Karnail Kaur v. State of Punjab (2015) 3 SCC 206 at paras 17, 18, 23; Rajiv Choudhrie HUF v. Union of India and Ors. 2015 (3) SCALE 203 at para 1; Competent Automobiles Co. Ltd. v. Union of India and Ors. AIR 2015 SC 3186 at para 4; Govt. of NCT of Delhi and Ors v. Jagjit Singh and Ors. AIR 2015 SC 2683 at para 3; Karan Singh and Ors. v. State of Haryana and Ors. 2015 (7) SCALE 191 at para 5; Delhi Development Authority v. Sukhbir Singh & Ors. SLP (CC) No. 5569 of 2015 at page 5; Shashi Gupta and Ors. v. State of Haryana and Ors. 2016 (5) SCALE 636 at para 5.

(3.) The facts of the present case are as follows. A Notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, was issued on 24th October, 1961, stating that the public purpose for acquisition was the planned development of Delhi. This Notification covered large tracts of land in and around Delhi. In this case, we are concerned with 33 bighas and 1 biswa of land in the Vasant Kunj area of New Delhi. This Section 4 Notification was followed by a Notification under Section 6 dated 4th January, 1969, which in turn, was followed by notices issued under Section 9 on 26th April, 1983. An award relating to the aforesaid land was then made by the Land Acquisition Collector, New Delhi, only on 12th December, 1997. Possession of the said land, being an open piece of land, was taken by a Panchnama dated 27th January, 2000. An affidavit that has been filed by the Commissioner, Land Management, Delhi Development Authority in this Court, pursuant to an order of this Court dated 17th April, 2015, discloses that the requisite compensation for taking over the said land was deposited by the DDA with the Land Acquisition Collector only in the year 2002. The said affidavit goes on to state that since the land had been sold to Respondent Nos. 3 to 5 in the present case, there was a dispute as to who would receive compensation and that, therefore, compensation could neither be paid nor tendered.