THUPTEN KALDEN BHUTIA Vs. STATE OF SIKKIM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners Mr. Thupten Kalden Bhutia and Ms. Dikila Kalden are father and daughter. The respondents are State of Sikkim (R-1), the Secretary, Land Revenue and Disaster Management Department (R-2), the Secretary, Power and Energy Department (R-3), the District Collector, West District (R-4), the Managing Director, Sikkim Power Development Corporation (R-5), the Union of India (R-6) and the Director, M/s Shiga Energy Pvt. Ltd. (R-7).

(2.) THE petitioners have filed this writ petition challenging Annexure-1 notification issued by the second respondent under Section 4 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, "the Act ") pertaining inter alia to the proposed acquisition of a total extent of 5.5050 hectares of land in various plots standing in the name of the first petitioner. The writ petition is also for quashing Annexure-2 declaration promulgated by the second respondent under Section 6 of the Act in respect of the very same property. The writ petition also seeks a writ of certiorari quashing and cancelling the procedure initiated under Sections 8 and 9 of the Act. It seeks quashment by a writ of certiorari of the award passed under Section 11 of the Act. It also seeks orders against the respondents directing them to pay compensation for the damages caused to the property of the petitioners. It also seeks a direction to the respondents for immediate cessation of further construction work on the property of the petitioners till the pendency of the writ petition.

(3.) THE petitioners point out that the fourth respondent is the District Collector and the Land Acquisition Officer for the area, who had sought for acquisition of land at Omlok Block and other areas for and on behalf of the fifth respondent, Sikkim Power Development Corporation, a Corporation owned by the Government of Sikkim and controlled by the same Government for whom only the lands were proposed to be acquired initially. The petitioners submit that the seventh respondent, is the company which will be implementing the 97 MW Tashiding Hydroelectric Project. To show that the petitioners have an interest in the property under acquisition and those properties stands recorded in the name of first petitioner, the petitioners produced Annexure-3, copy of the Parcha Khatian of the said property. Petitioners further pointed out that along with the property covered by Annexure-3, the State respondents have forcefully acquired for the purpose of implementing the power project of the seventh respondent, plot No. 712 which the petitioners assert to be part of their ancestral property and has been in the possession of their family for generations on the premise that that property is Khasmal/Forest land. Petitioners point out that the emergency provisions under Section 17(4) has been invoked and the petitioners were denied the benefit of the enquiry under Section 5A of the Act resulting in denial of opportunity to the petitioners to raise objections regarding the proposed acquisition.