KOPPULA NARASIAH Vs. GOVERNMENT OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these writ petitions involve same question of law and the facts are also the same. It is, therefore, convenient to dispose all of them by this common order. Accordingly, common order shall dispose of all these ten writ petitions. The facts are in a very narrow compass and indeed, but for giving a clarification wherever necessary, the respondents have not disputed the facts.

(2.) The necessary facts are as follows. The land owned by the petitioners was acquired under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 ('the Act' for brevity) as amended by the Nagarjunasagar Project (Acquisition of Land) Act, 1960. Awards were duly passed and the amount was disbursed to the owners. In some cases, the owners sought reference to the Civil Court under Section 18 of the Act and after the award of the Civil Court, enhanced compensation was also paid. In all the cases, awards were passed long ago, that is to say, about 20-25 years ago. The particulars are as follows: <FRM>JUDGEMENT_337_ALT6_2000Html1.htm</FRM>

(3.) In W.P.Nos. 21935,21936 and 21937 of 1996, the petitioners approached the District Collector requesting the re-convey the unutilised surplus land from out of the land acquired from them. Their request was rejected on 7-8-1996. In all other cases, however, the petitioners did not approach the authorities for reconveying the land. However, as there is a dispute as to whether the petitioners approached the authorities for re-conveying the land or not, for the sake of convenience, we may proceed on the premise that all the petitioners initially approached the authorities seeking reconveyance of the surplus unutilised land which was initially acquired for the purpose of Nagarjuna Sagar Project (NSP).