INDER DEV Vs. PUNJAB STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition raises the question whether the petitioners can be deemed to have abandoned their claim to have a certain matter referred to the District Judge under the provisions of Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

(2.) SOME land belonging to the petitioners was acquired under the provisions of the land Acquisition Act, 1894. The Collector gave his award on the 29-3-1955 and the petitioners requested the Collector to refer the matter to the District Judge on 29-4-1955. On 23-9-1955 the petitioners informed the Collector that they did not wish to proceed with their application for compensation in regard to the land, the brick-kiln or the bricks and on the same day the Collector passed a short order which was in the following terms :

(3.) MR. Kaushal, who appears for the State, has placed two submissions before me. It is contended in the first place that the present petition is hopelessly barred by time, for although the order declining to refer the matter to the District Judge was passed as long ago as 23-9-1955, the revision application was not presented to this Court till 20-9-1956, that is till after the lapse of almost a year from the date of the order under revision. Mr. Salooja, who appears for the petitioners, contends that after his clients had made an application for a reference under Section 18 of the Act of 1894 the minister in charge of the Department concerned gave them an assurance that they would be given some land in lieu of the land which had been acquired from them and that it was in consequence of this assurance that they withdrew a part of their claim on 23-9-1955. A copy of a note recorded by the Hon'ble Minister in the year 1955 has been produced in support of this contention. I am of the opinion that the petitioners withdrew the claim in view of the assurances which were given to them by the minister in charge that they would be allotted land elsewhere in lieu of the land which had been acquired from them.