The judgment establishes the entitlement of landowners to compensation under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, when their land is utilized for construction purposes.

JUDGMENT :

Suvra Ghosh, J.

1. The order passed by the Special Land Acquisition Officer, Paschim Bardhaman, on 2nd May, 2023 is assailed in the writ petition.

2. The writ petition has a chequered history.

3. The writ petitioners claim to have acquired right, title, interest and possession of the plots in question along with the proforma respondent and submit that portion of the plots measuring about 9.62 acres was acquired by the State for the purpose of construction of National Highway-2 through Asansol town by a proceeding being L.A. Case No. 5R of 1965-66 and compensation was paid in lieu of the same to the predecessors-in-interest of the writ petitioners and the proforma defendant. By subsequent acquisition cases being L.A. Case No. 88R of 1965-66 and No. 39R of 1970-71 initiated under the West Bengal Land (Requisition and Acquisition) Act, 1948, an area of about 0.97 acres and 522 acres was acquired and compensation paid to the predecessors-in-interest. Land measuring 84.19 acres was forcibly taken over from the petitioners without initiating any proceeding for the purpose of construction of flyover connecting National Highway-2 and GT Road within Mouza Asansol without paying any compensation to the petitioners for the same. The construction has been completed. Several writ petitions were filed by the petitioners before this Court claiming compensation and despite directions of this Court, the respondent authorities turned down the prayers of the petitioners each time. Finally by an order passed on 11th January, 2023 in WPA 19050 of 2019, this Court directed the concerned authority to revisit the case of the petitioners as made out in the representation submitted by them and pass a reasoned and speaking order within a stipulated timeframe upon affording reasonable opportunity of hearing to all the interested persons including the petitioners. Pursuant to the said order, the order impugned was passed rejecting the claim of the petitioners.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioners has submitted that though some portions of the plots in question including sub-soil rights were vested in the State under Section 4/5 of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953 and in terms of Section 29 of the Act vide notification published on 4th November, 1954, the record of rights issued in favour of the predecessors of the petitioners suggests that their names were recorded in respect of the plots in question under the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, meaning thereby that the plots were allowed to be retained by the predecessors, the said record of rights being acknowledged by the authority.

5. Notice under Section 3 (1A) of the West Bengal Land (Requisition and Acquisition) Act, 1948 was served upon the predecessors-in-interest of the petitioners for requisition of the plots in question and the land was acquired by virtue of a notification issued under Section 4 of the Act on July 26, 1974.

6. In the order passed on 18th August, 2023, the Special Land Acquisition Officer and L.A. Collector, Burdwan, held that the erstwhile owner Sushil Kumar Mukherjee, since deceased, obtained mining lease of land vested under the Estates Acquisition Act for 99 years on 1st December, 1989 and upon closure of the mining, the lessee should have recorded the surface right in his name. The order records vesting of all the sub-soil rights and refuses the prayer of the applicant on the ground that the petitioners therein failed to submit any document to substantiate the raiyati khatian.

7. Learned counsel submits that issuance of notification under the 1948 Act indicates that though sub-soil right in respect of the plots was vested in the State, the petitioners/their predecessors continued to have right, title and interest in respect of the surface land. The residential building of the petitioners known as ‘Seba Smriti’ in R.S. plot no. 2542 was taken over by the State in acquiring the land. The petitioners have prayed for compensation under the Right to Fair Comp