(1.) The petitioners in O. P. No. 3503 of 1982-P are the appellants. The respondents are the Kayamkulam Municipality, the District Collector, Alleppey and the State of Kerala. In the O. P , the prayers were for the issuance of a writ of certiorari to quash the proposed land acquisition proceedings in relation to the appellants' land and for the issue of a writ of prohibition restraining the respondents from taking any steps for acquiring their land in connection with the Kayamkulam Town Planning Scheme. The learned Judge dismissed the petition declining the reliefs. Hence this appeal.
(2.) The facts of the case, in brief, can be stated. The appellants are the owners of land in the Kayamkulam Municipality having an extent of 2.72 acres situated in Sy. No. 612 etc. The 1st respondent Municipality had published a Town Planning Scheme under the Town Planning Act, Act IV of 1108, (for short the Act), and had also passed a resolution on 29-4-1981 adopting the scheme. The scheme was published in the Kerala Gazette dated 14-3-1978 and in the newspapers in July 1981. Thereafter, the scheme did not proceed further. The first respondent, in the meanwhile, was thinking of acquiring the land belonging to the appellants for the purpose of expanding the existing bus stand. It was at this stage that the appellants approached this Court with the above prayers contending that once the scheme under the Act was proposed, acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act, except in accordance with the scheme, was irregular and invalid.
(3.) The first respondent in its counter affidavit admitted that it had an ambitious scheme under the Act. According to if, the scheme involved heavy expenditure. Help from the Central and State Governments was necessary for its implementation. The first respondent had established in the year 1970 a public bus stand in Sy. No. 616/2 and 3 in a property 10 cents in extent at a time when there were not more than four buses. At present, 67 buses are operating from Kayamkulam catering to the passenger traffic, besides the vehicles plying on the routes operated by the K. S. R. T. C. The 67 buses operated by private operators cannot make use of the bus stand established by the K. S. R. T. C. The facilities existing at present to private buses were very meagre. It was under these circumstances that steps were taken for acquisition of land belonging to the appellants. The acquisition for the bus stand could not be delayed because of the pressing need. The establishment of the bus stand was in exercise of the powers vested in the first respondent under the provisions of S.309 of the Kerala Municipalities Act. The Town Planning Scheme had not proceeded beyond S.8 declaration. Law did not stand in the way of the acquisition of the land in question under the Land Acquisition Act. At the time the appellants approached the Court, even S.3(1) notification bad not been issued If the land acquisition proceedings were taken, the appellants would be at liberty to urge all grounds available to them under the said Act The Original Petition was premature. This, in short, were the averments in the counter affidavit filed by the first respondent.