GLOBE METAL INDUSTRIES Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These three writ petitions have been filed for quashing the proceedings for acquisition of certain plots under Sections 28 and 32 of the U.P. Avas Evam Vikas Parishad Adhiniyam, 1965 (hereinafter referred to as the ''Parishad Act') as well as for a declaration that the acquisition proceedings have lapsed. The petitioners have also prayed that the respondents should be restrained from interfering with the peaceful possession of the petitioners over such plots.

(2.) The acquisition under challenge was initiated by 'The Uttar Pradesh Avas Evam Vikas Parishad' (hereinafter referred to as the ''Board') for execution of the housing and land development scheme framed by it called "Manjhola Bhumi Vikas Evam Grihsthan Yojana No.4 (Part-II) Moradabad" (hereinafter referred to as the 'Scheme'). The Board prepared the notice dated 22nd September, 1984 under Section 28(1) of the Parishad Act and published this notice in the U.P. Gazette on 6th October, 1984. Subsequently, after considering the objections filed against the proposed acquisition, the Board published the notification dated 11th January, 1991 in the Gazette on 9th February, 1991. This notification under Section 32(1) of the Parishad Act mentioned that the Board had sanctioned the Scheme on 12th March, 1987 and the State Government had also granted approval to it on 21st August, 1989. The plots involved in all the three petitions were included in the said notification and in terms of Section 17(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as the ''Land Acquisition Act'), as substituted by the Schedule to the Parishad Act, the State Government, in the interest of the expeditious execution of the Scheme, directed that the Collector could on the expiration of the 15 days from the publication of the notice under Section 9(1) of the Land Acquisition Act take possession of the land even though no award had been made. The Collector took possession of the plots involved in the present petitions and in terms of Section 17-A of the Land Acquisition Act, as added by the Schedule to the Parishad Act, gave charge of the land to the representative of the Housing Commissioner upon payment of the cost of the acquisition on 30th October, 2004 and 9th November, 2005.

(3.) The present petitions have thereafter been filed in the year 2006 for the reliefs mentioned above and interim orders were granted in all the three petitions that the petitioners shall not be dispossessed from the land in dispute until further orders. Stay vacating applications alongwith the counter affidavits were filed in the said writ petitions. The respondent-Board also filed Special Leave Petitions in the Supreme Court against the grant of interim orders which petitions were dismissed on 4th July, 2008. However, having regard to the facts, the Supreme Court requested the High Court to either dispose of the stay vacating applications or the main matter itself as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of two months. This is how the present petitions have been placed before us.