SATHEESAN Vs. DEPUTY COLLECTOR AND COMPETENT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) LIMITED, the respondent before the District Court, wherein the proceedings were initiated under Sec. 10(2) of Petroleum and Minerals Pipelines (Acquisition of Right of User in Land) Act, 1962 (hereinafter referred to as 'PMP Act' for short). Notification under Sec. 3(1) of the Act was issued on 12/03/2010 and notification under Sec. 6(1) of the Act was issued on 3/9/2010. The competent authority notified under the Act thereon passed an award fixing the compensation, against which the respective owners of the property had taken up the matter before the District Court under Sec. 10 of PMP Act for enhancement of compensation in accordance with the provisions contained in the Act. The District Court in turn re-assessed the compensation under Sec. 10(3) of PMP Act as ten times of notified fair value of the land by relying on the State Government notification - G.O.(Rt)No.5165/2017/RD dtd. 01/12/2017, by a common order, against which, the petitioner - M/s GAIL (INDIA) Ltd. came up in C.R.P.No.452/2019, 453/2019, 457/2019, 458/2019, 460/2019, 461/2019 and 462/2019 against the order in O.P.(PMP) 397, 276, 283, 253, 233, 277 and 166 of 2012 respectively. The respective claimants preferred C.R.P.Nos.642/2019, 24/2022, 26/2022, 633/2019, 643/2019, 17/2022 and 641/2019 respectively, dis-satisfied with the quantum of compensation.

(2.) Earlier, W.P.(C)No.2133/2020 was filed by the land holders, whose lands were acquired under notification dtd. 03/09/2010 claiming that the above mentioned Government Order dtd. 01/12/2017 should be made applicable to their lands also. The writ petition was dismissed by judgment dtd. 16/03/2022 holding that the G.O. cannot be made applicable to the lands covered under notification dtd. 03/09/2010.

(3.) The question came up for consideration is pertaining to the legal sanctity of the abovesaid State Government Order in the matter of fixation of compensation under Sec. 10 of the PMP Act. The abovesaid notification was issued based on a decision taken in a meeting chaired by Honourable Chief Minister on 11/11/2017 in partial modification of earlier orders issued viz., (1) G.O.(Rt) No.7325/2012/RD dtd. 29/12/2012 (2) G.O. (Rt) No.3195/2013/RD dtd. 04/06/2013 (3) G.O.(Rt) No.5436/2016/RD dtd. 16/12/2016 (4) G.O.(Ms) No.45/2017/RD dtd. 06/02/2017, by which the market value for the purpose of computing land compensation under Sec. 10 of PMP Act, 1962 has to be taken as ten times of the notified fair value of the land. Clause (IV) of the said Government Order says that compensation at the above rates shall be payable in respect of all property through which the GAIL Pipeline passes in Kerala right from the beginning of construction activity in January, 2012. The relevant portion of the order are extracted below for reference: