SUKH DEV PROKASH PURI Vs. LAND ACQUISITION COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Rule was obtained by the Petitioner against an order of the learned Land Acquisition Collector, Calcutta, refusing to make a reference under Sec. 18 of the Land Acquisition Act at the instance of the Petitioner.

(2.) The acquisition in question was made under the West Bengal Land Development and Planning Act, 1948, which adopted the material provisions of the Land Acquisition Act for that purpose. Sec. 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, which applies to such acquisitions, was invoked by the present Petitioner for his application for reference. The said application has been rejected on the ground that the Petitioner was not a person interested' as he did not make any claim before the Collector before the award in question was made. The learned Collector also referred, in this present impugned order, to a question of limitation with regard to the Petitioner's application for reference, although he did not express any final opinion on the same.

(3.) So far as the question of the Petitioner's being a 'person interested' for purposes of the above reference, the Collector relies on the definition of the said expression. in the Land Acquisition Act which has been adopted for purposes of acquisitions under the West Bengal Land Development and Planning Act, 1948. That definition is in these terms: