RANI DEVI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India the petitioner prays for issuance of a writ, order or direction to the respondents to release the land of the petitioner from acquisition or pay the compensation for the acquired land. The necessary facts are that the petitioner was Bhumidar/Recorded owner of the Khasra No. 201 measuring one bigha, situated in the revenue estate of village Shahbad, Daulatpur, New Delhi. In order to substantiate her claim she has annexed to the writ petition copy of the Fard Khatoni as Annexure P1. The Government had issued notifications under Section 4 and 17 of the Land Acquisition Act on 28.4.95. As the urgency provisions had been invoked the authorities issued a declaration under Section 6 of the Act on 26.4.96. Vide these notifications large tracts of land measuring about 1852 bighas 06 biswas was sought to be acquired, however, land measuring 176 bighas 03 biswas had been denotified vide notification dated 6.9.96. Part of the land was under the stay order passed by the Court in Civil Writ No. 3938/97. The land of the petitioner was also part of this large acquisition.

(2.) The Collector made the award determining the compensation payable to the claimant on 24.4.98 being Award No. 1/98-99. According to the award, the claimant was entitled to compensation of nearly Rs.8 lacs. According to the claimant, the possession of the land was taken, however, the compensation was not paid to her. The claimant, thus, issued a notice under Section 80 of the Code of Civil Procedure on 24.11.05 calling upon the respondents to pay the compensation of the acquired land. Having failed to receive the payment, the claimant/petitioner has filed the present writ petition with the above reliefs. A short affidavit on behalf of the respondent was filed wherein it was stated that the land of the petitioner was under Khasra No. 201 measuring about 17.7 bighas. The possession of the land were taken on various occasions i.e on 13.1.97, 7.12.99 and 17.11.2000 and possession was handed over to DDA. It is further stated that possession of land measuring about 10.10 bighas was also taken by the authority and handed over to DDA on 16.12.98. It is stated that the department had announced 18 awards covering the land measuring about 5,000 bighas and the compensation has been disbursed to the persons who have furnished the requisite documents.

(3.) On enquiry it was found that there exist an unauthorized colony, namely, Gupta Colony, Prahlad Vihar on the land in question. The occupants were occupying small holdingd ranging from 20 to 50 square yards on the basis of some agreements/General Power of Attorneys executed by the owners of the land. The petitioner was not in possession of the land at the time of passing of the award. It is disputed that he, however, surrendered the possession and, in fact, the possession was taken on 2.5.06 after causing demolitions. In these circumstances, it is stated that the writ petition needs to be dismissed. In the present case, the award was made in the year 98-99 and admittedly the payment of awarded compensation has not been disbursed to the claimant. The claimant is the recorded Bhumidar but these are the subsequent events which have created certain impediments in disbursement of this compensation. The liability to pay the compensation to the claimant would arise when they have taken the possession of the land. In the present case the possession of the property in question has been taken on 2.5.06. Thus, from the date of taking of possession there appears to be no inordinate delay in disbursement of the compensation.