HARI KRISHAN KHOSLA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE following question has been referred to this Full Bench in the circumstances hereinafter detailed:-

(2.) A learned Single Judge of this Court (P. C. Jain, J.) before whom the petition came up for hearing framed the above quoted question and directed that a larger Bench should hear the case. A Division Bench of this Court (Sandhawalia and Jain, JJ.) before whom the petition was listed for hearing passed order, dated August 16, 1973, directing the case to be placed before the learned Chief Justice for constituting a still larger Bench to hear it. In the meantime Dewan Hari Krishan Khosla died. Two of his sons, namely Avtar Krishan Khosla and Chand Krishan Khosla submitted an application to this Court praying for their names being substituted in place of the name of their father as petitioners in the case, on the ground that the share of Hari Krishan Khosla in the amount of compensation had devolved upon the present claimants according to the will of the deceased. That application was allowed toy our order, dated May 6, 1974, to the extent of directing the names of Avtar Krishan Khosla and Chand Krishan Khosla being substituted for the mime of their deceased father.

(3.) THE constitutionality of Section 8 (3) (a) of the Act has been questioned on the solitary ground that it violates the guarantee of equal protection of laws under Article 14 of the Constitution, inasmuch as the acquisition of petitioner's land under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as the 1894 Act) would have entitled them to obtain from the respondents at least 15 per cent more on the amount of compensation awarded to them (awarded to their father) on account of solatium and 6 per cent more on account of interest, but the said reliefs had been denied to the petitioners on the lone ground that they are not entitled to either the solatium or the interest under the Act. In order to appreciate the submissions made by the learned counsel on this issue, it is necessary to notice some of the salient features of the Act. "competent authority" is defined in Section 2 (b) of the Act to mean any person or authority appointed by the Central Government by notification in the Official Gazette, to perform the functions of the competent authority under this Act for such area as may be specified in the notification. Sub-section (1) of Section 3 authorises the competent authority to requisition any property which might be needed for any puroose of the union. Section 7 (1) states that where any property is subject to requisition, the Central Government may, if it is of opinion that it is necessary to acquire the property for a public purpose to acquire the same by merely publishing in the Official Gazette a notice to the effect that the Central Government has decided to acquire the property. We are not concerned with the detail of the procedure which is given in the remaining part of Section 7 (1) for the purpose of answering the question which has been referred to us. Sub-section (2) of Section 7 provides that when a notice under Sub-section (1) is published in the Official Gazette, the requisitioned property vests automatically in the Central Government free from all encumbrances, and the requisitioning of the property shall thereupon come to an end. Sub-section (3) of Section 7 is in the following words:--