IMPORTANT POINT
Acquired land - release of unutilized portion.

JUDGMENT

M.Y.EQBAL, J.

Leave granted.

2. These appeals are directed against the orders dated 2.12.2009 passed by a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court in Civil Misc. Writ Petition Nos. 7748 of 2002 and 21407 of 2002 whereby the writ petitions filed by the appellants herein were disposed of with a direction to respondent No. 4 – Meerut Development Authority to press its resolution dated 17.09.1997 if the said Authority is not in need of the land so acquired and the orders dated 9.4.2010 whereby the review applications filed against the orders dated 2.12.2009 in the said writ petitions were rejected.

3. The facts of the case lie in a narrow compass. The appellants filed the aforementioned writ petitions seeking the following reliefs:

i. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondent no. 1 to accept the proposal for withdrawing from acquisition in view of the resolution dated 17.9.97 submitted by the Meerut Development Authority at the earliest within a period to be fixed by this Hon’ble Court.

ii. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the entire land acquisition proceedings in pursuance of the notification u/s 4 dated 27.1.1990 and declaration u/s 6 of the Act dated 7.3.90.

ii-a. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the order/decision communicated by letter dated 24.08.2002 (Annexure-16 to the writ petition).

iii. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents not to dispossess the petitioners from their respective lands forcibly in pursuance of the acquisition for declaration was issued u/s 6 of the Act on 6.3.90.

iv. Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents to pay the damages for financial loss, mental agony and pain to the petitioners in view of section 48(2) of the Act.

v. Issue any other writ, order or direction which this Hon’ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case.

vi. Award cost of the writ petition to the petitioners.”

4. It appears that vide Notification dated 27.1.1990 under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, “the Act”), the State of U.P. proposed to acquire 246.931 acres of land situated at Village Abdullapur, Pargana, Tehsil and District Meerut. Since the land was alleged to have been urgently required by the State, the provision of Section 17(1) of the Act was invoked. The aforesaid land was sought to be acquired for the purpose of construction of a residential/commercial building under planned Development Scheme by the Meerut Development Authority (for short, “the MDA”). Since Section 17(1) of the Act was invoked, inquiry under Section 5A of the Act was dispensed with. Thereafter, declaration under Section 6 read with Section 17(1)&(4) of the Act was made on 18.3.1990 which was published in a daily newspaper. Consequently, notice under Section 9 of the Act was issued and pursuant to that appellants are said to have filed their objections. On 17.3.1992, respondent No. 3 – the Special Land Acquisition Officer, Meerut passed an award. After the said award, the appellants applied before the Land Acquisition Officer on 24.4.1992 for making a reference under Section 18 of the said Act and accordingly respondent No. 3 referred the matter to the District Judge vide order dated 22.9.1997.

5. The appellants’ case is that by resolution dated 17.9.1997, respondent No. 4 – the MDA decided to withdraw the acquisition of the land except the land measuring 42.018 acres for which compensation was paid. The MDA is said to have decided to de-requisition the land measuring 204.912 acres. It appears that in 2001-2002 meetings were held and correspondences exchanged between the authorities, the District Magistrate, Meerut and the State Government and ultimately the State Government decided not to accede to the decision of the MDA for de-requisition of the land. The appellants, therefore, on these f