IMPORTANT POINT
The court established that land once acquired vests with the State, and claims of non-possession or non-payment do not negate the validity of the acquisition.

ORDER :

SUNITA AGARWAL, C.J.

1. Heard learned counsel appearing for the petitioners and perused the record. Learned advocate Mr. M.B. Gohil for respondent no. 2. is present through hybrid mode.

2. By means of the present petition, the petitioners (7 in number) seek the following reliefs :-

“20(B) This Hon’ble Court may be pleased to issue a writ, order or declaration that petitioner’s land in question situated at Village Jaspur, Tal. Kalol, District : Gandhinagar bearing survey no. 32, 36, 66, 67, 68, 69, 105 and Survey Nos. 57, 59, 35 and 38 were not acquired and it not vested in the State as award was never acted upon by the Parties.

(C) Be pleased to issue an appropriate writ, order or direction quashing and setting aside the impugned award declared by Land Acquisition Ofiicer bearing case no. 19 of 1997 at Annexure-B as no nest, unenforceable and void as no possession of the land was taken and no compensation was paid and the proceedings were never concluded.

ALTERNATIVELY

This Hon’ble Court may be pleased to issue appropriate writ, order or direction calling upon respondents to release the petitioner’s land at annexure-A as stated in Annexure-A to this petition.”

2.1. During pendency of the writ petition being Special Civil Application No. 12107 of 2020, three (3) of the petitioners namely, petitioner nos. 1, 2 and 4 had expired, whose heirs have been brought on record.

3. The petitioners claim to be owners of different parcels of land, situated at Village Jaspur, Taluka Kalol, District – Gandhinagar, which were acquired vide Notifications under Sections 4 and 6 published under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as the “Act”) on 26.03.1989 and 16.01.1999. As per the statement made in the writ petition, the Special Land Acquisition Officer had declared the award on 02.12.1999. We may note that the statement made in the writ petition about the petitioners being owners of different parcels of land is without any detail of survey numbers which were owned by them.

3.1. Be that as it may, a vague assertion has been made in the writ petition that no possession was taken and compensation was not paid by the Special Land Acquisition Officer. It is stated that the petitioners are cultivating the lands in question, which is an open land and it was though acquired for construction of canal, but no canal has been constructed. There is a reference of a communication dated 11.01.2000 of the Chief Executive of Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) to the Executive Engineer, Narmada Yojna Canal, Division 3/2, Balvantrai Mehta Bhavan, Sector-17, Gandhinagar, that canal passing through ‘Sola Jaspur Distributary Canal’ is not required, inasmuch as, the said area passes through a residential zone. The area is to be declared as ‘Urban’ area and no agricultural operations were permitted therein. It was recommended that the project of canal was required to be cancelled. The statement made in the writ petition that though the land in question had been acquired by ‘Sardar Sarovar Nigam Limited’, but, the project of canal had been cancelled and the proposal for release of land in question was under consideration. In various paragraphs of the writ petition, it is stated that the petitioners were not paid compensation, nor the possession of the land in question had been taken.

3.2. It is further submitted that there is no concluded acquisition since possession has not been taken and compensation was not paid, the land in question had never vested with the State Government and the ownership of the land was never transferred to the State. The award made on 02.12.1999 is termed as paper award and that it has no legal sanctity or legal authority and is unenforceable. There is a reference of the pending matter before the Hon’ble Apex Court in the case of Indore Development Authority about impact of Section 24(2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (hereinafter r