ABHEY RAM Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted. Heard counsel for the parties.

(2.) This appeal by special leave arises from the judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi passed on 2-3-1987 in C.W. No. 2657/85.

(3.) Notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, the "Act") was published on November 5, 1980 acquiring a large extent of land admeasuring 50,000 bighas situated in several villages including Khirkee village. The land in Khirkee village admeasures 1011 bighas of which the appellant is in possession of 25 bighas. Declaration under Section 6 was published on June 7, 1985. Challenging the declaration, several writ petitions came to be filed in the High Court. The primary contention was that the declaration having been published after 3 years, is barred by law. The notification under Section 4(1) stands lapsed. Similar to the appellants, several persons approached the High Court. The Full Bench in Balak Ram Gupta v. Union of India, (C.W.P. No. 1639/85 decided on May 27, 1987) (reported in AIR 1987 Delhi 239) upheld the validity of the notification under Section 4(1) and declaration under Section 6 on the ground that some of the land owners whose land was covered under the common notification under Section 4(1) had already approached the High Court and obtained stay of further proceedings including publication of declaration under Section 6. As a consequence, the stay obtained continuing in operation stood excluded by operation of Explanation II to Section 6(1) of the Act, Accordingly, the declaring published under Section 6(1) was held valid in law. When the present writ petition had come up for hearing, the Division Bench of the High Court passed an order stating that the controversy raised was covered by the judgment of the Full Bench and no other point has been raised or argued before the Division Bench. The writ petition has been dismissed. Thus this appeal by special leave.