PANNA LAL Vs. COLLECTOR ETAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant No. 1 was the owner of some land lying within the Municipal Limits of Kasganj of which the appellant No. 2 was the tenant. The land was acquired under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act for the construction of a Bus stand. The appellant No. 1 filed an objection under Section 5A of the Land Acquisition Act, but it was rejected. The Collector made his award under Sections 11 of the Land Acquisition Act on the 21st of July 1954. On 11-8-1955 the appellants filed an application under Section 18 of the Act requiring a reference to be made to the District Judge. In this appli- cation they alleged that they had come to know of the award only on the 5th of August 1955. By his order, dated 3-11-1955, the Collector rejected the application and refused to make the desired reference on the ground that the application was time-barred. The appellants then applied for a rehearing of the matter on the ground that it was not open to the Collector to himself consider the question of limitation and that he was bound to make the reference when an application was made to him under Section 18 of the Act. This application was again rejected by the Collector on 13-12-1955 on the ground that the contention put forward in it was not correct. The appellants then filed a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution in which they prayed that the orders of the Collector dated 3-11-1955 and 13-12-1955 be quashed by a writ of certiorari or the ground that he had no jurisdiction to refuse to make a reference to the District Judge when he was required to do so under Section 18 of the Act, The appellants also wanted the Collector to be directed by a writ of mandamus to make a refer-ence to the District Judge. When the petition came up for hearing before Mr. Justice Chaturvedi, reli-ance was placed in support of it by the learned counsel for the petitioners on the case of Ahmad Ali Khan v. Secretary of State, AIR 1932 Oudh 180. The learned Judge conceded that the case supported the petitioners' contention but preferred to follow the contrary view which had been ex-pressed in Secretary of State v. Bhagwan Prasad 1932 All LJ 752: (AIR 1932 All 597) and Maha- deo Krishna Parkar v. Mamlatdar of Alibag, AIR 1944 Bom 200. He therefore took the view that it was for the Collector to decide whether the application for reference was within time or not and when he found that the application was made beyond time he was bound to refuse the request for reference. As a result the petition of the appellants was dismissed. The appellants then filed this Special Appeal and in view of the fact that there was a conflict of opinion on the question raised in the appeal between this Court and the late Oudh Chief Court, the Division Bench before which the appeal came up for hearing referred the appeal to a Full Bench. That is how the case has come up before us.

(2.) The short question which therefore arises for our consideration is whether it is open to the Collector, when an application is made to him under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act requiring that the matter be referred for the determination of the Court, (District Judge), to reject the application and to refuse to make a reference.

(3.) Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act reads as follows: "18. (1) Any person interested who has not accepted the award may, by written application to the Collector, require that the matter be referred by the Collector for the determination of the Court, whether his objection be to the measurement of the land, the amount of the compensation, the person to whom it is payable, or the apportionment of the compensation among the person interested. (2) The application shall state the grounds on which objection to the award is taken: Provided that every such application shall be made: (a) If the person making it was present or represented before the Collector at the time when he made his award, within six weeks from the date of the Collector's award; (b) in other cases, within six weeks of the receipt of the notice from the Collector under Section 12, Sub-section (2) or within six months from the date of the Collector's award whichever period shall first expire".