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2013 Supreme(Del) 2532

IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
Badar Durrez Ahmed, Vibhu Bakhru, JJ.
Prabhat - Appellant
Versus
Union of India - Respondent
LPA 12/2009
Decided On : 30-08-2013

Advocates Appeared:
Mr. Kanwar Udai Bhan for the Appellants.
Mr. Digvijay Rai for R-2/AAI. Mr Sanjay Kumar Pathak for R-4/Nodal Officer for the Respondents.

Headnote:

Land Acquisition Act, 1894 - Section 4 - Allotment of land - Denial by Nodal Officer - Rejection of claim - Name of the father of the appellants appears in the list of 122 persons, who were original allottees - Appellants were in possession of lands - Eligibility criteria is satisfied - Appellants have been denied allotment of alternative lands - Appellants have been found to be in possession of property which was earlier recorded in the name of Mawashi - Property in possession of the appellants was a built up property and the area of the property admittedly exceeded the area recorded in the name of Mawashi - Appellants have been living on the community lands since over 50 years - Held, appellants cannot be held to be ineligible on account of any discrepancy between the land records and the land physically occupied by them - Appeal is allowed and impugned order set aside - Matter remanded for fresh consideration.

[Paras 13, 14]

Vibhu Bakhru, J.

1. The present appeal challenges the order dated 12.02.2008 passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.(C) No. 1 115/2008. The appellants had filed the writ petition challenging the order dated 01.08.2007 passed by the Nodal Officer rejecting the claim of the appellant for allotment of an alternative plot in lieu of the land occupied by them in the village of Nangal Dewat. The learned Single Judge had held that in order to be eligible for allotment of alternative lands, a person must satisfy the two conditions of eligibility as specified in the scheme which was adopted for the purpose of allotment of alternative plots. The two conditions being that a person should be in physical possession of the land in 2007 and the name of the person must be included in the list of original allottees of 1958. The Committee constituted to look into the issue of allotment of alternative land had not found the appellants to satisfy this eligibility criteria and hence, had rejected their claim for allotment of alternative land. The Nodal Officer (Respondent No. 4 herein) also rejected the claim of the appellants on the same basis. The learned Single Judge having found no infirmity in adopting the eligibility criteria dismissed the writ petition filed by the appellants.

2. The scheme for allotment of alternative plots to persons belonging to the communities to whom the land had been allotted earlier and the eligibility criteria framed thereunder has already been upheld by a Division Bench of this Court in the judgment delivered on 16.04.2013 in the case titled as Bhoop Singh v. DDA & Ors.: LPA No. 260/2008. It is contended by the learned counsel appearing for the appellants that he is not assailing the scheme but is limiting the challenge in the present appeal to the decision of the Nodal Officer/Committee in finding the appellants not eligible for allotment of an alternative plot. It is contended that the appellants fulfil the specified criteria and, thus, ought to be allotted an alternative plot. Thus, the only question to be considered in the present appeal is whether the appellants are eligible for allotment of alternative land as per the scheme framed by the Committee, constituted for determination of the allotment of plots in lieu of lands recorded in the name of communities, and adopted by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Union of India.

3. The relevant facts for considering the controversy in the present appeal are as under.

4. A notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act was issued on 28.04.1972 for acquiring the lands of village Nangal Dewat for the public purpose of expansion of IGI Airport, New Delhi. The notification dated 28.04.1972 was followed by a declaration under Section 6 of the said Act on 22.08.1972. Subsequently, pursuant to the land acquisition proceedings, an award dated 14.08.1986 was passed. The said award was challenged before this Court in W.P.(C) No. 481/1982 titled as "Daryao Sing h & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors.". The said writ petition was disposed of on 02.08.2001 with Airport Authority of India (Respondent no. 2 herein) making a statement that all persons whose names appeared in the award would be allotted alternative lands in terms of the Rehabilitation Scheme which would be framed within a period of six months. On the said statement being recorded, the petitioners therein gave up their challenge to the proceedings. A review application no. 9312/2001 seeking review of the order dated 02.08.2001 was filed by the Harijan and Backward Jan Kalyan Samiti wherein a grievance was raised that names of several persons had not been included in the list of persons to whom alternative lands were proposed to be allotted by the Nodal Officer. In these proceedings, it was explained by the Nodal Officer that certain lands were recorded in the name of four communities i.e. Makbuja Jullahan, Makbuja Chamaran, Makbuja Kumharan and Makbuja Ahle as the said lands were not allotted to any indivi

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