AMAR CHAND MANDAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This intra-court appeal has been preferred by the appellants, who were the writ petitioners, being aggrieved by the judgement and order dtd. 13/6/2023 passed by the learned Single Judge in WP(C) No. 2904/2015, dismissing the writ petition primarily on the ground of delay and laches on the part of the petitioners, in approaching the Court. By filing the above mentioned writ petition, the petitioners had assailed the order dtd. 10/3/2015, by means of which, their prayer for payment of compensation for the alleged acquisition of land for construction of 31 No. National Highway at Barpeta Road was rejected by the authorities.

(2.) The facts and circumstances of the case, in a nutshell, are that the predecessor-in-interest of appellant nos. 1 (I), (II) and (III) viz. late Hemanta Kumar Mandal along with the predecessor-in-interest of the appellant No. 2 (iv) (a) and (b) i.e. late Dhirendra Das and 4 others, had jointly instituted WP(C) No. 2904/2015 inter alia, contending that land measuring 7 Bighas 4 Kathas 17 Lechas forming part and parcel of land measuring 11 Bighas 04 Kathas 02 Lechas, belonging to them had been acquired by the State for construction of National Highway No. 31 without paying any compensation. The request made by the appellants/petitioners for payment of compensation was rejected by the Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of Assam, Revenue and Disaster Management Department, by the impugned order dtd. 10/3/2015, issued under Memo No. RLA.134/2003/Pt-I/282, which was put under challenge in the writ petition. Contending that the value of land in the Barpeta Road town area had been notified on 28/3/2014 to be Rs.75.00 lakhs per bigha, the appellants had jointly prayed for a Writ of Mandamus for payment of a sum of Rs.5,97,75,000.00 to them as compensation for the land.

(3.) From a scrutiny of the case record, it appears that the claim of the writ appellants was based on few departmental communications including the communications dtd. 23/12/2010 and 8/8/2011 (Annexure-7 to the writ petition) issued by the Circle Officer, Barnagar Revenue Circle, as well as the letter dtd. 26/8/2013 issued by the Deputy Commissioner of Barpeta requesting the Project Director (PIU) NHAI to place the proposal for payment of compensation before the competent authority.