Stale or dead claims cannot be the subject-matter of judicial probing under Section 24 of the Act of 2013, and the finality of previous dismissal of similar challenges.

JUDGMENT :

S. Muralidhar, J.

The prayers in the petition read as under:

"(a) issue a writ, order or declaration declaring that the entire acquisition proceedings i.e. Section 4 notification dated 21.3.2003, Section 6 declaration dated 19.3.2004 and the award no.12/2005- 06/DC(NW) dated 5.8.2005 in respect of the land comprised in Khasra nos. 34/6 (5-2), 34/7 (4-0), 34/14 (4-16) and 34/4 (1-0) situated in the Revenue Estate of Village Barwala, Delhi have lapsed in view of sub-section 2 of Section 24 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013; and

(b) issue a writ of mandamus directing the respondents not to interfere with the peaceful possession of the said lands presently in possession and occupation of the petitioner."

2. The narration in the petition reveals that notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 ("LAA") was issued on 21st March 2003, followed by declaration under Section 6 of the LAA on 19th March 2004. The impugned Award No. 12/2005-06 was passed on 5th August 2005. The reason for the said acquisition was the public purpose of "Rohini Residential Scheme" under the planned development of Delhi.

3. The Petitioner states that he is the owner of land in question having purchased it on 16th October 1989 by way of sale deeds. It is stated that the Petitioner has been cultivating the land continuously. The khatoni and khasra girdawri for the years 2011-12 and 2013-14 have been enclosed with the petition. A house tax receipt dated 28th March 2010 as well as the electricity bills for the year 2014 have also been enclosed along with the petition.

4. It is further mentioned in para 3 of the petition that the Petitioner previously challenged the acquisition proceedings in this Court by filing W.P(C) 13030 of 2005. The said writ petition was dismissed by order dated 9th July 2007. Subsequently, the Petitioner preferred SLP(C) 13056 of 2007 in which status quo as regards the subject land was granted by an order dated 3rd August 2007. Thereafter, the petition straightaway refers to the passing of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (hereafter the "2013 Act"). The Petitioner submits that since physical possession remains with him and no compensation has been paid, the acquisition proceedings stand lapsed in terms of Section 24 (2) of the 2013 Act.

5. It is pertinent to note that the same land acquisition proceedings in respect of the land in the Revenue Estate of village Barwala, Delhi were challenged by a separate batch of Petitioners in a batch of writ petitions where the lead matter was W.P(C) 2501 of 2013 (Naresh Kumar & Ors. v. Union of India). By a detailed judgment dated 17th April 2013, a Division Bench (DB) of this Court dismissed the writ petitions inter alia holding as under:

"We, at the inception, put to learned senior counsel for the petitioners as to why and how can we permit a settled position to be unsettled after a decade. This is so as the petitioners chose to remain silent when the acquisition proceedings were initiated, accepted the same, took compensation and sought references for enhancement of compensation. The aforesaid facts have to be examined in the conspectus of the purpose for which the land was acquired which was planned development of Rohini Residential Scheme. In Delhi there has been large scale acquisition by the DDA which was originally the only authority which was engaged in development of land and meeting the housing needs of the people. No doubt in this process while large tracts of land were acquired, some land remain undeveloped and the DDA could not protect its land pool with the result encroachment took place. These encroachments have been on such a massive scale with practically no prevention that a large part of habitants of Delhi reside in these colonies. The Government has come up now with schemes of regularization of these colonie