VED PRAKSH Vs. LAND ACQUISITION COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners have filed the present petition, inter alia, praying that directions be issued to the Land Acquisition Collector (hereafter LAC) to forward their reference under Sec. 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereafter LA Act). The petitioners claim that their land comprised in Khasra Nos.592 min (5-17) and 593 (5-7) situated in the revenue estate of village Kilokari, New Delhi (hereafter the subject land) was acquired in terms of an Award No.9/1999-2000, dtd. 31/3/2000. The petitioners claim that they became aware of the said award on 24/12/2003, when the LAC tendered the compensation for the acquisition of the subject land.

(2.) It is not in dispute that no notice under Sec. 12(2) of the LA Act was served to the petitioners. Immediately after receiving the compensation and after becoming aware of the award in question, the petitioners filed a reference under Sec. 18 of the LA Act on 6/2/2004. The said reference was not forwarded by the concerned LAC to the concerned court on the ground that the same was barred by limitation. The concerned LAC sent a communication dtd. 4/1/2021 (hereafter the impugned communication) informing the petitioners that the reference dtd. 6/2/2004 filed by them was beyond the period of limitation.

(3.) It is the petitioners' case that the question of limitation is required to be decided by the Reference Court and not by the LAC. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioners' relies on the decision dtd. 8/5/2017 of the Division Bench of this Court in W.P.(C) No.2318/2014 captioned Arpit Bhargava v. GNCT of Delhi and Ors. in support of this contention. The relevant extract of the said decision reads as under: