AIRPORTS AUTHORITY OF INDIA Vs. KARAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) <DJG>S.MURALIDHAR, J.</DJG> These petitions concern the claims for allotment of alternative land made by the residents of Nangal Devat village in the vicinity of the international airport at Delhi. Their lands were acquired over two decades ago under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 ("LA Act") for the purpose of expansion of the airport. During the course of the proceedings in this Court challenging the acquisition, the respondents, which included the Airports Authority of India (AAI) came up with a rehabilitation scheme, offering the landholders alternative plots in village Rangpuri, near Vasant Kunj in Delhi. The land holders then gave up their challenge to the acquisition and the focus shifted to devising a mechanism for dealing with their disputed claims for allotment of alternative plots at Rangpuri. Through a series of orders, to which a reference will be made hereafter, this Court appointed a Nodal Officer and entrusted him with the task of determining eligibility of the claimants and the tenability of their claims. Guidelines for disposing of the claims were approved and made part of the order of this Court. Persons aggrieved by the orders passed by the Nodal Officer in their individual claim petitions were permitted to challenge those orders by separate proceedings. The Nodal Officer having disposed of the claims, the aggrieved claimants have filed these petitions before this Court. Some others, including those who did not file their claims before the Nodal Officer, approached the civil court. The civil court passed interim orders directing a re-survey of the lands in question. Aggrieved by the interim order, the AAI and the Nodal Officer have filed revision petitions in this Court which are also being disposed of by this common judgment.

(2.) The background to the filing of these petitions was that on 28.4.1972, a notification was issued under Section 4 of the LA Act proposing to acquire 289 bighas and 9 biswas of the land in village Nangal Devat for the public purpose for expansion of the Palam Airport at Delhi. This was followed by a declaration on 28.8.1979 under Section 6 of the LA Act. On 14.8.1986, the land acquisition Collector (LAC) issued an award No. 16/86-87 determining the area under the acquisition as 263 bighas and 5 biswas. The award determined the claims for compensation for land, structures and trees separately. It indicated the precise amounts of compensation of the structures claimant-wise.

(3.) The Nangal Devat village consists of the old abadi (Lal Dora) area as well as the extended abadi area. While a revenue record exists in relation to the extended abadi area, no revenue record was available for the old abadi (Lal Dora) area. A survey was accordingly conducted in 1972-73 in respect of the lands in the old abadi area. This survey also covered the structures in the extended abadi area. On the basis of the survey report for the old abadi and the revenue record for the extended abadi, two Naksha Muntazamins were prepared, one for the apportionment of the compensation for land and the other for the apportionment of compensation for the structures.