VITTHAL YADAV WANKHEDE Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CIVIL Revision Application No.19/2002 is directed against the Order dated 28/09/2001 passed by the Special Land Acquisition Officer, Zilla Parishad, Amravati in Revenue Case No.S-18/41/1999/Shewti Jahagir and S-18/42/1999/Shewti Jahagir thereby rejecting the references of the applicants under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act on the ground that applicants failed to pay requisite Court fees. Civil Revision Application Nos.20/2002, 21/2002, 22/2002 and 23/2002 are directed against the order dated 24.9.2001 passed by the Special Land Acquisition Officer, Zilla Parishad, Amravati thereby rejecting the references filed by the applicants under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act on the ground that the applicants failed to pay the requisite Court fees.

(2.) AFTER going through the impugned orders passed by the Special Land Acquisition Officer, Zilla Parishad, Amravati as referred to above, it is on a common ground that the land references submitted by the land owners whose lands were acquired came to be dismissed on the ground they failed to pay requisite court fees and therefore, the Special Land Acquisition Officer refused to forward the land references submitted by the land owners under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act to the Civil Court. While rejecting the land references, Special Land Acquisition Officer, Zilla Parishad, Amravati observed that filing of court fee stamp is an integral part of proper filing of reference and on that count, as already pointed out that the references came to be dismissed. The learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the Land Acquisition Officer erred in rejecting the land references and refusing to forward the same to the Civil Court on the ground that requisite court fees are not paid. It is further submitted that the Court fees can be remitted or deposited even before the Civil Court and, therefore, under such circumstances, it was appropriate for the Special Land Acquisition Officer to pass a conditional order on the application for references preferred by the applicants stating therein that the requisite Court fees be paid before the Civil Court and to forward the said references to the Civil Court. In this regard, the decision of the Division Bench of this Court reported in 2003 (2) Mh.L.J. 661 (Sambhaji Manaji and another Vs. State of Maharashtra and another) is relied upon. The same point as arose in the present revisions were raised before this Court in the above referred case and this Court at paras 9 and 10 observed as under :-

(3.) THEREFORE, the impugned orders passed by the Special Land Acquisition Officer, Zilla Parishad, Amravati, are hereby quashed and set aside. The Special Land Acquisition Officer, Zilla Parishad, Amravati is directed to forward the above referred references made by the applicants to the Civil Court within a period of four weeks from the date of receipt of this Order. Thereafter the requisite Court fees shall be paid by the petitioners within a period three months before the Reference Court and unless the compliance is made, reference shall not be registered. Rule is made absolute in the aforesaid terms with no order as to costs.