DAUD AHMAD Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We have heard Shri S.K. Verma, Sr. Advocate assisted by Shri D.V. Jaiswal and Shri Siddharth Verma for the Petitioner. Shri Jafar Naiyer, Addl. Advocate General appears for the State Respondents. Shri Rajiv Gupta appears for the District Judge, Allahabad.

(2.) The writ petitions are the oldest land acquisition matters pending in the High Court. Both the writ petitions were dismissed for want of prosecution on 7.12.2009. We had found that the counsels for the Petitioners were avoiding the hearing for more than 20 years for one reason or another. They sent repeated illness slips. The land was acquired for extension of the Civil Court building of the Judgeship at Allahabad. The possession of the land was taken on 22.9.1986 by a possession certificate signed by Shri Umeshwar Pandey, the then Addl. District Judge, Allahabad, who was later on elevated to the High Court. The Petitioners, however, re-entered and continued in possession illegally throughout the pendency of the writ petitions. Inspite of request made by successive District Judges to expedite the hearing, the matter was not listed, and that whenever it was listed, it was got adjourned on the request of learned Counsel for the Petitioner. The Petitioner was enjoying the possession purportedly in contravention of the order of the status quo dated 23.9.1986 and using the premises for both residential and commercial purposes.

(3.) Shri S.K. Verma, learned Counsel for the Petitioner undertook that he will be arguing the matter without seeking any further adjournment, on which we permitted him to address the arguments on merits. The matter was heard on merits. Both the writ petitions were heard at length on 9.12.2010 and that the judgment was reserved.