SURINDER SINGH MANHAS Vs. STATE OF J&K

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CLAIMING to be the owners of various parcels of land situated in Village Majheen of Tehsil Samba, District Jammu, Forty Nine (49) petitioners have filed this petition seeking a command against the respondents to denofity the acquired land, cancel the deeds executed by them in favour of any person, society, institution or authority and to handover them the vacant possession of their land. Compensation for harassment and financial loss too has been claimed by the petitioners.

(2.) THE case set up, in the writ petition, in nut -shell, is that Jammu Development Authority had acquired land in Village Majheen by misleading the owners thereof in projecting that the land was needed for a public purpose for developing the area as SATELLITE TOWNSHIP SIDHRA, but the mala fide intentions of the Development Authority came to the fore when it was discovered that rather than developing the SATELLITE TOWNSHIP, the Authority had been indulging in commercial transactions of their land, and while acting as such, had illegally handed over three hundred (300) kanals of land to Batra Hospital, and ninety Five (95) kanals, to the Jammu and Kashmir Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development (IMPA, for short). Giving details about issuance of various notifications under the provisions of the State Land Acquisition Act, Svt. 1990 (1934 A.D), hereinafter to be referred as the Act, the petitioners have questioned the acquisition proceedings on the ground that the respondents had not followed the procedure prescribed under the Act for acquisition of their land, and in invoking, inter alia the provisions of Section 17 of the Act.

(3.) PETITIONERS say that they had not consented to offer their land to Jammu Development Authority for doing business, and as the Authority was indulging in business activities, so they were entitled to restoration of their land.