The main legal point established in the judgment is that the acquisition proceedings did not lapse under Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act, as the appellant was prevented from taking possession due to interim orders and quashing of notifications under Section 6 of the Act.

JUDGMENT :

HEMANT GUPTA, J.

1. The challenge in the present appeal is to an order dated 22.12.2014 passed by the High Court of Delhi whereby an application filed in the pending writ petition was allowed, holding that the acquisition proceedings stand lapsed in view of Section 24(2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013¹[For short, the ‘2013 Act’].

2. The land of the respondents²[For short, the ‘land owners’] measuring 14 Bigha 8 Biswa comprising in Khasra No. 1883 (4-16), 1884 (4-16) and 1885 (4-16) at village Chattarpur was notified under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894³[For short, the ‘Act’], as required for the planned development of Delhi vide notification dated 25.11.1980. The notification was in respect of lands situated at Village Chattarpur, Satbari Maidangarhi, Sayoorpur and Rajpur Khurd. The declarations under Section 6 of the Act were published on 27.5.1985, 6.6.1985, 7.6.1985 and 26.2.1986, and the award was announced on 05.06.1987.

3. The process of acquisition initiated vide notifications dated 5.11.1980 and 25.11.1980 was challenged in a number of writ petitions before the High Court and an interim order of stay of dispossession was granted. In the first bunch of writ petitions, the challenge was to the notification under Section 4 of the Act inter alia on the ground that the notification was not for a public purpose. Such challenge was remained unsuccessful on 15.11.1983 by a judgment reported as Munni Lal v. Lt. Governor of Delhi, 1983 SCC OnLine Del 321.

4. Various writ petitions were thereafter filed to challenge the notification under Section 6 of the Act on the ground that such notification has been published after the time limit provided by Central Act No. 68 of 1984. The Full Bench of the High Court in a judgment dated 27.5.1987 reported as Balak Ram Gupta v. Union of India⁵[For short, the ‘Balak Ram-I’, 1987 SCC OnLine Del 227 : AIR 1987 Del 239] held that the stay of dispossession in one or the other writ petition is required to be taken into consideration for determining the period of three years in publication of the notification. The High Court held as under:

“39. We have, for the reasons stated above, come to the conclusion that the period during which stay orders were in force should be excluded in computing the validity of the declaration under S. 6. So far as the notification dated 25-11-80 is concerned, we find that the latest of the S. 6 declarations was on 26-2-86. The stay order (in C.M.P. 668/81) was in operation from 18-3-81 to 15-11-83 i.e. for a period of 2 years, 7 months and 27 days. They are therefore in time having been issued within three years plus 2 years 3 months, i.e., 5 years 3 months of the S. 4 notification. So far as the notification dated 5-11-1980 is concerned, we find that the latest of the S. 6 declaration was issued on 7-6-1985, i.e., 4 years 7 months after the S. 4 notification. They stay order (in CMP 4226/81) was operative from 30-9-1981 to 15-11-1983, i.e., for 2 years and 11/2 months. If this period is excluded the declaration is within time. We answer the principal issue debated before us accordingly.”

5. After deciding the question of law, the matter was ordered to be placed before the appropriate Division Bench. The writ petitions were decided by the Division Bench on 14.10.1988, when the operative order was passed stating ‘reasons to follow’. The High Court upon recording the reasons in a judgment reported as Shri B.R. Gupta v. Union of India & Ors., ⁶[For short, the ‘Balak Ram-II’, 1988 SCC OnLine Del 367 : (1989) 37 DLT 150 (DB)] on 18.11.1988, set aside the notification issued under Section 6 of the Act as the writ petitioner was neither given an opportunity of personal hearing, nor was he actually heard in the objections filed by the land owners under Section 5A of the Act and since there was no record maintained for consideration of large number of objections filed by the wri