JUDGMENT :

Apurba Sinha Ray, J.

1. Brushing aside unnecessary details the factual aspects of this case may be narrated as hereunder:-

The predecessor-in-interest of the respondents had instituted Title Suit No. 33 of 1968 against the appellants herein praying for declaration of tenancy rights in respect of the suit land described in the schedule of the plaint. The said suit was decreed in favor of the predecessor- in-interest of the present respondents. It is alleged that during the pendency of the said suit, the predecessors of the respondents were forcibly dispossessed of an area of 39.02 acre out of 42.15 acre of the suit land. A case being no. LAII/39 of 1981-82 was started in respect of the said land of 39.02 acres and an award was passed in favour of the predecessors of the respondents.

2. The predecessors-in-interest of the respondents filed a land acquisition reference case being LRA No. 384 of 1985 for enhancement of the compensation amount. After hearing the parties the Learned Additional Special Land Acquisition Judge, 1st Court at Alipore, passed a judgment and order dated 23.12.1987 enhancing the amount of compensation. The Learned Judge was pleased to note that the predecessor-in-interest of the respondents was illegally dispossessed of the acquired land long before the formal notification, and as such he was entitled to equitable compensation for the deprivation of his property for the period from 16.11.1968 till the date of notification, in addition to his other dues.

3. The State of West Bengal preferred an appeal before this Court being FA No. 232 of 1988 which was dismissed by a Division Bench of this court on 15.04.2008. A special leave petition filed by the State of West Bengal before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India against the said judgment and decree was also dismissed. A review application and thereafter a curative petition filed by the State of West Bengal were also dismissed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. However, the compensation amount was released 45 years after taking possession of the land from the predecessors of the respondents when the said predecessors had already passed away.

4. The respondents filed a writ petition being WP 4586(w) of 2014 contending that 42.15 acres of land was the tenancy land of the predecessor-in-interest namely Krishna Pada Pramanick (since deceased) and out of the said land, 39.02 acres had been acquired although actual physical possession was taken on 16.11.1968. Therefore an area of 3.13 acres was still left with the present respondents. The said land is in illegal possession of the State and in spite of repeated representations to demarcate and give back the land to the writ petitioners, the same was not done on the ground that the entire matter regarding vesting of all the lands of the respondents was pending for final adjudication. According to the respondents, all such litigations had ended in their favour but the said 3.13 acre was not demarcated and given back to the respondents for reasons best known to the State of West Bengal.

5. In the original affidavit-in-opposition filed on behalf of the State of West Bengal it was contended, inter alia, that the said lands had vested in the State and compensation therefor had already been disbursed. As such there was nothing left to be adjudicated upon. In the affidavit-in-reply it was specifically pointed out that the plea of vesting and payment of compensation which was a pretext on behalf of the State of West Bengal, in any event, related to the superior interest and not tenancy interest of the respondents. It was also alleged that the plea of the State in respect of the vesting of the land of the respondents had been negatived at least seven times before of the courts of law including thrice before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.

6. It was further alleged on behalf of the respondents /writ petitioners that a supplementary affidavit-in-opposition filed by the State of West Bengal contemplated a completely new