DURGA DEVI Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution for issuance of a writ of Certiorari quashing the impugned orders (Annexures 'B', 'D', 'E', 'F' and 'H') of the respondents, who are the State of Punjab, the Land Acquisition Collector, the Superintending Engineer, In-charge Guru Nanak Thermal Plant Project, Bhatinda, the Sub-Divisional Officer, Civil Construction Sub-Division, Bhatinda and the Punjab State Electricity Board.

(2.) The petitioner is owner of 7 Bighas and 13 Biswas of land bearing Khasra No. 207, besides the land, bearing Khasra Nos. 205 and 206, situated in the revenue estate of Bhatinda. For the construction of Thermal Power Station at Bhatinda, the Punjab Government (Respondent 1) issued two notifications under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (hereinafter called the Act) which were published in the Punjab Government Gazette on August 8, 1969 vide Annexures 'B' and 'C' to the writ petition. According to the notification (Annexure 'B'), 38 acres of land in Bhatinda was to be acquired, including Khasra Nos. 205 and 206 belonging to the petitioner. Khasra No. 207 was not mentioned in either of the notifications. On, August 11, 1969, the Punjab Government issued a declaration under Section 6 of the Act, which was published in the Government Gazette on August 22, 1969 (Annexure 'D'). In this declaration, the land of the petitioner in Khasra Nos. 205 and 206 was included. On January 16, 1970, the Punjab Government published another notification issued under Section 4 (Annexure 'H') of the Act for acquiring 35 acres of land, including Khasra Nos. 204, 205, 206 and 207. It was coupled with a direction under Section 17 of the Act and the provisions of Section 5-A had been dispensed with. This was followed by the publication in the Government Gazette of January 23, 1970, a declaration under Section 6 of the Act (Annexure 'E') in which all the three Khasra numbers belonging to the petitioner namely, 205, 206 and 207 were mentioned. It is alleged by the petitioner that she had built 10 shops in June, 1969 in Khasra No. 207. The Collector had announced his award regarding compensation of the land comprised in Khasra Nos. 205, 206 and 207 and the petitioner received compensation on October 23, 1970 under protest. The compensation was awarded at the rate of Rs. 8000/- per acre. It was alleged that no compensation had been awarded for the ten shops on the land in dispute.

(3.) The challenge to the notifications and the acquisition proceedings comes on the ground that in the two notifications (Annexures 'B' and 'H') under Section 4, it was incumbent on the Collector to specify the area and other details of the land to be acquired and that the order of the Collector (Respondent 2) for demolition of the shops before taking vacant possession was arbitrary and illegal.