FRIANDS HOUSING SOCIETY Vs. DELHI ADMINISTRATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is directed against the acquisition of the land in dispute situated on Ring Road near Rajouri Gardens, New Delhi. In the writ petition, the petitioners have alleged that the petitioner constituted a partnership firm, acquired the land in dispute by purchase and by agreements of sale for purposes of housing and they prepared a lay-out plan and made other arrangements to carry out their scheme.

(2.) On 19th July, 1956, the State issued a notification under S. 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (hereafter referred to as the Act) for acquisition of the land in dispute. Thereafter the petitioners filed objections on 9th August, 1956 and after some correspondence had been carried on, the land in dispute was denotified on 19th December, 1957. A fresh notification under Section 4 of the Act was, however, issued in respect of large areas of land including the land in dispute on 13th November, 1959. Within thirty days of the same, on 12th December, 1959 the petitioners filed objections against the said notification. On 1st July, 1960, the Government issued a press note declaring the policy that all lands of which lay-out plans had been sanctioned by the appropriate authority before 13th November, 1959 would not be acquired and they specified 16 colonies for the purpose, but the colony of the petitioners was not denotified. Eventually on 16th August, 1962, a declaration under Section 6 of the Act was issued in respect of the land in dispute which has led to the filing of the writ petition.

(3.) In support of the petition, the petitioners have urged mainly two grounds, namely, they had filed their own lay-out plan and the same had either in fact or in law been sanctioned and so the conditions laid down in the press note dated 1st July, 1960 and the acquisition of their colony was illegal. The second contention is that the land in dispute purports to have been acquired for the Master Plan which was published in July, 1960 and so they have not had any adequate opportunity to prefer objections under Section 5-A of the Act against the notification dated 13th November, 1959. In support of this contention, the petitioners have relied upon a number of facts and circumstances which would be noticed in appropriate places.