PATEL KOHLABHAI RAMJIBHAI Vs. SPECIAL LAND ACQUISITION OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this bunch of writ petitions, common issues are raised with regard to utilization of private agricultural lands belonging to the petitioners herein of three Districts, namely, 'Banaskantha', 'Kachchh' and 'Patan', for the purpose of construction of Narmada Canal and its distributaries. In almost all the writ petitions, common plea of the petitioners are that they have been deprived of their agricultural lands and thus the only source of livelihood by dispossession in the years 2012 and 2013, by the concerned authority on payment of advance compensation, with the assurance that acquisition proceedings for their lands would be completed within a shot-while to pay them just and adequate compensation. It is stated by the petitioners in these bunch of writ petitions that neither acquisition proceedings been commenced nor compensation had been paid and their lands were utilized in the interregnum. Almost more than 11 years have passed during which the petitioners kept on approaching the competent authority for payment of compensation, but no heed had been paid, which has resulted in filing of writ petitions by the landholders before this Court.

(2.) We may note that in some of the writ petitions when we called for the comment from the State Office, we were intimated that acquisition proceedings for the land utilized for the Narmada project had been commenced to pay compensation.

(3.) While this Court was facing influx of identical writ petitions by landholders of three Districts, on 1/4/2024, the affidavit of the Under Secretary (Land Acquisition) Narmada Water Resources of Water Supply and Kalpsar Department, Government of Gujarat had been filed to state that looking to the influx of cases pertaining to utilization of private lands without acquisition for the purpose of construction of Narmada Canal and its distributaries, the State Government has resolved to constitute an Inter-Departmental Committee to oversee and ensure that the process of acquisition of such lands and payment of compensation by conducting due process of law, is completed in a time bound manner. The copy of the 'Government Resolution' dtd. 15/3/2024 was filed along with the aforesaid affidavit.