PRATAP STEEL ROLLING MILLS Vs. REVENUE DIVISION OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Careless printing of a notification issued under S.6 of the Land Acquisition Act in the Andhra Pradesh Gazette Part-I Extraordinary bearing No. 359 dated 10th July, 1984, has given rise to a controversy arising for consideration in this Writ petition. The petitioner seeks a writ of mandamus to restrain the 1st respondent herein from enforcing the notices in Form Nos. 6 and 7 dated 26-7-84 and Form No. 10 dated 10-9-1984 as illegal, void and inoperative. According to the petitioner, the lands notified for acquisition under S.6 of the L. A. Act published in the A.P. Gazette bearing No. 359 dated 10th July, 1984 are not lands belonging to him. It may be relevant to notice a few facts, initially notifications under Section 4(1) and Sec. 6 of the Land Acquisition Act dt. 25-6-1982 were published together in the A.P. Gazette Extraordinary dt. 13-7-1982 proposing to acquire a portion of the land belonging to the petitioner in S. Nos. 341 and 343 admeasuring Ac.0.14 guntas. Enquiry under Section 5-A of the L.A. Act was dispensed with. The above acquisition was challenged by the petitioner in writ petition No. 1114 of 1983 on several grounds. The Government proposed to acquire a large extent of land belonging to several persons for the purposes of construction of a railway line from Tellapur to Patancheru. The acquisition was also questioned by the owners of the land in Writ Petition No. 6802 of 1983. This court disposed of the writ petition bearing No. 6802 of 1983 as well as the writ petition filed by the petitioner bearing No. 1114 of 1983 by a common judgment dated 31-1-1984. It is sufficient to state that the learned single Judge disposing of the above writ petition upheld the acquisition of the Ac.0-14 guntas of land belonging to the petitioner in S.Nos. 341 and 343. Against the order of the learned single Judge, the petitioner preferred an appeal in writ appeal No. 278 of 1984. The appeal filed by the petitioner was allowed by a Division Bench on the ground that the question of invoking either sub-section (1) or sub-section (4) of Section 17 of the L.A. Act in respect of the land belonging to the petitioner did not arise, as the land was neither waste land nor arable land. In that view this court quashed the notification under Section 6 of the L.A. Act and directed the Special Deputy Collector, Sangareddy to hold an enquiry under Section 5-A of the L.A. Act into the proposed acquisition of the land belonging to the petitioner notified under S.4(1).

(2.) Pursuant to the above directions of this court, necessary enquiry under S.5-A of the L.A. Act was conducted. The petitioner stated his objections to the proposed acquisition. Eventually, notification dt. 23-6-1984 was issued under S.6 of the L. A. Act, which was published in the A.P. Gazette Part. I Extraordinary, dated 10th July, 1984. It is the validity of this notification under Section 6 of the L.A. Act that the petitioner challenges in the present writ petition. The notification bearing Memo No. 2387/82-37 dt. 23-6-1984 published in the A.P. Gazette stated that the land admeasuring Ac.0-14 guntas, of which details were given in the notification, acquired for the purpose of laying of new broad guage railway line from Tellapur to Patancheru and the Revenue Divisional Officer, Sangareddy, is appointed to perform the functions of the Collector under the L. A. Act and directed to take order for the acquisition of the said land under sub-section (7) of S.17 of the L.A. Act. The details of the land specified in the notification filed by the petitioner are given below : -

(3.) Learned standing counsel for the 2nd respondent Railways who took notice on behalf of the 2nd respondent at the time when the writ petition came up for admission, wanted a day's time to check up as to how errors crept in the notification. He was granted time accordingly and he produced before the court another copy of the original gazette Part-I Extraordinary bearing No. 359 dt. 10-7-1984, The notification under S.6 dated 10-7-1984 published in this Gazette specified the following particulars of the land acquired : -