STATE OF WEST BENGAL Vs. ARUN KUMAR BASU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Delay condoned. Leave granted. This appeal, by special leave, arises from the judgment of the Calcutta High Court made on March 5, 1993 in Appeal No. 465/91.

(2.) The admitted position is that the respondents are liquidators of erstwhile West Bengal Provincial Company Ltd. Proceedings have been placed before us to establish that the Bengal Government had acquired the land applying Chapter 8 of the Land Acquisition Act (1 of 1894) and delivered possession of the land admeasuring 30 miles for laying the railway line. The specifications of the land attached were given in Schedule-B to the acquisition proceedings.

(3.) The notification under Section 4(1) of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953 (for short, the Act) was published on April 16, 1954 w.e.f. April 15, 1955 notifying the vesting of the estate in the State. The consequence have been provided in Sections 4(1), 5 and 6 of the Act with a non-obstante clause excluding the applicability of any other provisions under Section 3 of the Act, As a consequence, the pre-existing right, title and interest held by the company and vested in its liquidators for sale of the property, stood divested by operation of Section 4(1) of the Act and vested in the State. The consequences of the notification and vesting have been considered by this Court in State of West Bengal v. Suburban Agricultural Dairy and Fisheries Pvt. Ltd., (1993) 4 Suppl. SCC 674 . This Court had held thus: