ASHOK KUMAR Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE short and the only question involved for consideration in this Letters Patent Appeal is, whether an application U/s 18 of the Land Acquisition Act requiring the Collector that the matter be referred for determination to the court is within time or not is to be decided by the Collector or the court ? The learned Single Judge (Hon'ble Mr. Justice T.S. Doabia) answered this question as follows :-

(2.) MR . V. Bhushan Gupta, appearing for the appellant, submits that both the judgment relied upon by the writ court in fact support the conclusion that the Collector must decide the question of limitation before making a reference. He has also placed reliance on the decision of the Apex Court in Mohammad Hasnuddin v. State of Maharashtra, AIR 1979 SC 404. However, the contention of Mr. Kotwal, appearing for the respondents, is that the respondents had no notice of the award and, therefore, the order of Collector is bad and was rightly set aside with the direction to make reference to the court.

(3.) SIMILARLY . in Sher Singh v. Union of India (FB), AIR 1983 Punjab and Haryana 107, the Bench after referring to a catena of decisions, held as under :-