A reference to the Court under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, is incompetent if there is no application made under Section 18 of the Act by the person interested who has not accepted the award.

A. V. KRISHNA RAO, J.

( 1 ) THIS is an appeal by the Land Acquisition Officer against the award made by the Court of the Subordinate Judge Anantapur enhancing the compensation upon a reference by the appellant under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act (1 of 1894), hereinafter called the Act. The only point urged by the learned Government Pleader on behalf of the appellant at the hearing is that the reference was incompetent as there was no application made under Section 18 of the Act by the respondent, Kodandaramacharlu, and therefore the lower Court ought to have declined to interfere with the award made by the appellant. ( The facts necessary to appreciate the contention are briefly these: On 22-12-1958, the appellant made his award fixing the market value of the wet lands acquired at Rs. 450. 00 per acre and of the dry lands acquired at Rs. 50. 00 per acre. On 29-12-1958, he made the reference to the lower Court under Section 18 of the Act. The reason stated for the reference was that in response to award enquiry notices issued, Kodandaramacharlu raised an objection to the valuation and wanted a reference to Court if he was not pair Rs. 5,000. 00 per acre wet land and Rs. 120. 00 per acre of dry owned by him" The said objection was raised in the respondents petition dated 4-11-1958 to the appellant, marked Exhibit B. 2. This was prior to the award and admittedly, the respondent did not file any such petition objecting to the amount of compensation after the appellant made the award on 22-12-1958.

( 2 ) SECTION 18 of the Act is in the following terms: 18 (1) "any person interested who has not accepted the award may, by written application to the Collector, require that the matter be referred by the Collector for the determination of the Court, whether his objection be to the measurement of the land, the amount of compensation, the persons to whom it is payable, or the apportionment of the compensation among the persons interested.

( 3 ) THE application shall state the grounds on which objection to the award is taken: Provided that every such application shall be made. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (a) if the person making it was present or represented before the Collector at the time when he made his award, within six weeks from the date of the Collectors award: (b) in other cases, within six weeks of the receipt of the notice from the Collector under Section 12, sub-section (2), or within six months from the date of the Collectors award, whichever shall first expire. " The period of limitation for an application under section 18 (1) is extended to six months in cases falling under proviso (b), but this does not assist the respondent as he did not file an application even within the extended period.

( 4 ) THE appellant contended in the lower Court that it had no jurisdiction to entertain the reference, inasmuch as there was no objection petition by the respondent under section 18 of the Subordinate Judge on the ground that it is not the claimants petition but the Collectors reference under Section 18 that gives jurisdiction to the Court. Reliance was placed on the following observations of Kuppuswami Ayyar, J. , sitting singly in Venkateswaraswami v. Sub-Collector, Bazwada, AIR 1943 Mad 327 at pp. 328 and 329. "in the case of a reference under S. 18 it is not the application of the party which gives jurisdiction to the civil Court, but it is the reference made by the Land Acquisition Officer. An application may be given and the reference may not be made. Consequently if the application was not validly made, then it will only indicate that the reference was made without adequate grounds. But that will not make it any the less a reference which would give the Court jurisdiction to enquire into the question referred to. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "it is clear that it is the duty of the Collect

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