VISHWANATH Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of both the sides, the matter is heard finally at the stage of admission.

(2.) The petitioners have invoked jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and prayed for quash and set aside impugned order dtd. 16/10/2020 passed by the Respondent No.3 Deputy Collector (Land Acquisition) Coordination, Beed, thereby rejected the application for correction in award dtd. 31/3/1978 in Case No. LAQ/SR/27/74. The petitioners also prayed for issuance of directions against the respondent No.2 to correct entries in the column of ownership of Statement-E of award dtd. 31/3/1978 by substituting names of the petitioners as owners of the land Survey No. 31/2A and 31/2B on the bass of judgment and decree dtd. 4/2/2011 passed by the learned Civil Judge Senior Division, Majalgaon District Beed in Regular Civil Suit No.161 of 2010.

(3.) The learned counsel appearing for the petitioners submitted that, on 6/3/1975, Notification under Sec. 4 of the Land Acquisition Act was published in the Government Gazette intending to acquire petitioners' land bearing Survey No. 31/2A and 31/2B. Thereafter, on 31/3/1978, the Special Land Acquisition Officer passed the award, however, names of the petitioners did not figure in the column of 'names of owner' but it has been mentioned as 'title not decided'. The learned counsel further submitted that, initially, petitioners' father Shri Girmaji Gonde was owner of said land but on 3/9/1990 petitioners' father died and after death of their father, their names are recorded in the revenue record being legal heirs. Thereafter, on 9/3/2010, the petitioner approached respondent No.3 with a request to release the amount of compensation of Rs.575.00 under the Award for acquisition of their land to the extent of 0.20 R. However, on 24/5/2010, the special land acquisition passed an order and held that title of the acquired land has not been decided and therefore the petitioners were directed to get the ownership to be decided from the competent Court for release of compensation in their favour. Therefore, the petitioners filed Regular Civil Suit No. 161 of 2010 before the Court of Civil Judge Senior Division, Majalgaon and prayed for declaration of ownership of acquired land and for release of payment of compensation. Accordingly, on conclusion of trial, the learned civil Judge Senior Division passed judgment and decree on 4/2/2011 and declared that the petitioners are joint owners of land which have been acquired by respondents out of Survey No. 31/A admeasuring 6 Acre 28 gunthas and directed the Special Land Acquisition Officer to pay compensation of Rs.575.00 to the plaintiffs/petitioners. Thereafter, the petitioners filed Execution proceedings bearing Darkhast No. 32 of 2004 and the respondents have deposited compensation amount in execution proceedings, which the petitioners received.