NAMITA MONDAL Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Plot No.1713, 1716, 1717, 1719, 1723, 1724, 1725, 1726, 1727, 1729 situated at Mouza- Ganrui, JL No.12 within Police Station Asansol, pertaining to khatian No.295 in all measuring about 14.26 acres of land is the subject matter of the instant writ petition. The case of the petitioner is that their predecessor-in-interest namely, Keneram, Raju and Baidyanath Mondal became the owners of the aforesaid land by auction purchase held sometime in the year 1936 by the Sherastadar, Asansol Court. After purchase, the predecessors-in-interest recorded their names in CS Record of Rights and also RS Record of Rights.

(2.) It is the case of the petitioner that the state respondents claimed that the said plots excluding plot No.1729 at Mouza Ganrui was acquired by the State Government vide LA Case No.22 of 1966-67 and it was handed over to the Housing Department, Government of West Bengal by a notification No.17786-LA-IG-4-63 dtd. 1/10/1963. Although the subject land was allegedly acquired in the year 1967, the petitioners or their predecessors were not paid any compensation in spite of several representations being made to the state respondents during the long time. Sometimes in the year 2005 the petitioners came to know that the subject land was handed over to Asansol, Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA) for construction of housing at Asansol. The petitioners filed an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 to get specific information as to the ownership and status of the land in the year 2014 and the Information Officer vide letter dtd. 2/9/2014 informed them that the names of the predecessor-in-interests of the present petitioners are still recorded in the RS Record of Rights. Though, the predecessors-in-interest of the petitioners did not receive any notice of acquisition of the subject land, it is specifically found that the subject land is under the possession of the State Government, particularly Asansol Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA). The petitioners wanted to verify the record of the specific land acquisition case by virtue of which the subject land was allegedly acquired, but the Land Acquisition Collector, Burdwan informed them that the record of the LA case being very old is not available with the department. Subsequently, they came to know on 20/11/2015 that the subject land was acquired in LA case No.22 of 1966-67. The petitioners also prayed for a copy of the notice or gazette notification to ascertain as to whether the subject land in the above mentioned plots were acquired or not, but they were not supplied with any copy of notice or gazette notification. The petitioners then made a demand justice through their learned Advocate requiring the Land Acquisition Collector to mention the status of the acquisition of subject land as claimed by the respondents but they did not get any opposite reply from them.

(3.) For the reason aforesaid, the petitioner has filed the instant writ petition praying for the following reliefs:-