P VENKATESAN Vs. GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners have filed this writ petition for declaration to declare that the Award No. 20/94 in R.C. No. 1607/90 dated 2.9.94 on the file of the second respondent is ab initio void.

(2.) SINCE the validity of the award is being challenged on legal ground. I do not think there is any need to elaborate the facts. The short ground on which the learned Senior Counsel Mr. Doraisamy impugned the award is that the total compensation amount awarded by way of the value of the land is Rs. 14,29,073/- and the Collector ought to have got the prior approval of the Commissioner of Land Revenue, as required under proviso to sub-section (1) of Section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act. As that has not been done, the award is null and void.

(3.) HENCE on the date when the award was passed, it is absolutely necessary that the Collector ought to have got the prior approval of the Commissioner of Land Revenue. In this case, admittedly, the Collector has not obtained the previous approval of the said Commissioner of Land Revenue. Only subsequent to the passing of the award, the Collector has written for the approval for which the Commissioner of Land Revenue has sent a reply on 18.12.95 stating that the Collector ought to have sought for the previous approval of the Commissioner of Land Revenue before even the award was passed. There is no provision in the Act to ratify the award passed by the Collector.