LAKHANLAL Vs. TOWN IMPROVEMENT TRUST

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order shall govern Miscellaneous Petition No. 113 of 1967 also. Both these petitions are directed against-

(2.) THE material facts, as far as they are not in dispute, may be shortly stated. THE respondent No. 1 framed Land Acquisition and Development Scheme No. 2-B for development of the land to be acquired therefor in order to provide plots of land for building residential accommodation. THE Scheme provides for acquisition of 102.62 acres of land, including 56.91 acres out of 69.14 of village Purwa belonging to the petitioners in this case and of 0.71 acre of land of the same village belonging to the petitioner in the sister case, all situated within the limits of the Municipal Corporation, Jabalpur. THE notification relating to the Scheme was duly published in the M. P. Rajpatra and also in a local paper as required by section 46 (2) of the Act. Following this, and in the usual course, the State Government issued the impugned notification under section 52 (1) of the Act and also subsequently passed the impugned order under section 70 of the Act. Notices were then issued under section 71 (3) of the Act requiring the petitioners to deliver possession of the lands. After taking possession, the respondent No. 1 offered certain amounts as compensation to the petitioners in the two cases but they declined to accept those amounts. Even so, for determining the dispute relating to amount of compensation, a tribunal was not constituted as required by section 73 of the Act.

(3.) THE respondents Nos. 1 and 2 and the State Government (respondent No. 3) filed separate returns, traversed all adverse allegations made by the petitioners in the two cases and contested their claim to the relief asked for by them. THEy further stated that the Scheme was prepared for the purpose of relieving congestion in the city and it envisaged making available building sites to city dwellers living in crowded localities and desiring to shift to open areas in the periphery of the inhabited localities of the city. In that Scheme, certain special features of other types of schemes enumerated in section 31 of the Act were also incorporated.