LT GOVERNOR OF DELHI Vs. MANDIR SITA RAMJI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal under clause 10 of the Letters Patent against the judgment of a learned single Judge of this Court, who had issued a writ quashing the" notification dated 7th D November, 1968, issued under section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, in respect of certain lands in village Karkar Doma, Shahdara, Delhi.

(2.) The facts of the case are that on November 13, 1959, the Delhi Administration issued a notification under section 4 of the Land Aquisition Act, 1894, (hereinafter called the Act), notifying for likely acquisition of land measuring 34,017 acres. The said notification further set out that, inter alia, "Land under graveyards, tombs, shrines and the land attached to religious institutions and Wakf property" was exempted from the purview of the said notificationShree Sita Ram Bhandar, a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, preferred certain objections under section 5-A of the Act in respect of 324 bigh s of land in village Karkar Doma (Shahdra), Delhi. According to the objections of this Society, the land in respect of which it had filed objections belonged to Mandir Sita Ramji, Pilani in Rajasthan and was outside the purview of the acquisition. The Land Acquisition Collector submitted his report to the Delhi Adminis- tration in respect of notified land and thereafter, on November 7, 1968, the Delhi Administration made a declaration under section 6 of the Act, by a notification of that date, purporting to acquire various lands including the land in respect of which Shree Sita Ram Bhandar had filed objections under section 5-A of the Act. A Writ Petition No. 330 of the 1970 challenging the said acquisition on various grounds, including the contention that the Section 6 notification had been issued and the declaration under section 6 of the Act had been made without affording an opportunity to Shree Sita Ram Bhandar of being heard on its objections under section 5-A of the Act, was filed. The learned single Judge, who heard this petition, allowed the same by his judgment dated 28th September, 1971, and held that "both the requirements of a hearing, by which is meant a full and adequate hearing, as well as a recommendation by the Collector, which is mandatory, under section 5-A of the Act, not having been complied with the declaration under section 6 made in this case (without complying with both these requirements) cannot obviously be upheld." Aggrieved by this judgment, the Lt. Governor of Delhi and others, who were respondents in the Writ Petition, preferred a Letters Patent appeal.

(3.) One of the points that were canvassed before us was that the notification under section 6 has been rightly quashed inasmuch as the hearing contemplated by section 5-A of the Act was not given by the Collector before making his recommendations to the Delhi Administration and even the Delhi Administration did not apply its mind to the objections of Shree Sita Ram Bhandar prior to making of the declaration under section 6 of the Act. We, therefore, without prejudice to the contentions of the parties, directed by our order dated 6th April, 1972, that the Delhi Administration should give a hearing to Shree Sita Ram Bhandar on the objections that it filed before the Collector under section 5-A of the Act and a report about it as well as the decision of the Delhi Administration should be submitted to this Court by 27th April, 1972. The report of the Delhi Administration has been filed along with the decision of the Delhi Administration which has been taken on the record and made a part of it. According to this report, a hearing was afforded to Shree Sita Ram Bhandar which was represented by Counsel before the Delhi Administration. The proceedings of the hearing were conducted before Shri R.N. Puri, Deputy Secretary (Land & Buildings), Delhi Administration, who submitted the record of the hearing along with his report to the Secretary (Land & Buildings), Delhi Administration. Shri Prakbhar Kamath, Secretary (L & B), then put up all these papers, along with his comments, before the Lt. Governor who, agreeing with the report of Shri Puri, rejected the objections of Shree Sita Ram Bhandar.