Negotiated purchases under the Land Acquisition Act preclude claims for compulsory acquisition of remaining land under Section 49(2) when no formal award is made.

JUDGMENT :

1. The petitioner is a Private Limited Company registered under the Companies Act having its registered office at Mumbai. In furtherance of its business activities, the petitioner purchased an extent of 493.11 cents of land situated in Vizhinjam Village, Neyyattinkara Taluk, for the purpose of starting a Holiday Resort. The petitioner states that they had entered into a joint venture with the Inter Continental Hotels Group for establishing a Resort as "Holiday lnn" in the property. Ext. P1 is the Building permit issued to the petitioner for the above purpose by the Vizhinjam Grama Panchayat.

2. While so, the Government of Kerala decided to develop a deep water Multipurpose Greenfield Port at Arabian Sea coast at Vizhinjam through its special purpose Government Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd (VISL). As per G.O.(MS)No.74/08/F&PD dated 25.11.2008, the Government have ordered that the extent of land to be required for the construction of rail/road connectivity, container yard, work area etc. and activity beneficial necessary/incidental for the Vizhinjam Port Project will be 120 hectares. Vizhinjam Port Project was declared as a fast track project as per G.O.(MS)No.72/09/F&PD dated 7.11.2009 and a special team under the leadership of Tahsildar and staff of Revenue and Survey Departments was also constituted for acquisition of 120 hectares of land for the project.

3. The 5^th Respondent, the Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd., forwarded a requisition for acquisition of 45.56 Неctares of land in various survey numbers in Vizhinjam Village and the Commissioner of Land Revenue, by order dated 21.12.2009, sanctioned permission to invoke urgency clause under Section 17(4) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. Thereafter, Section 4(1) Notification was published on 12.03.2010 and a declaration notification of intended acquisition was issued on 21.12.2010.

4. As per the declaration notification, an extent of 1.7266 hectares of land was to be acquired from the petitioner's total holding of 493.11 cents, leaving behind 55.43 cents. Thereafter, vide communication dated 06.12.2010, the Special Tahsildar, the 4^th respondent, called for original title deeds and other necessary documents and by 2012, major portion of the petitioner's property was acquired. Thus, an extent of 34.811 cents in Survey Nos. 282/16-1 and 282/17 and an extent of 20.620 cents in Survey Nos.287/6 and 287/6-1 (total 55.431 cents) were left behind. As a result of the acquisition proceedings, almost 90% of the petitioner's land was declared to be acquired, leaving behind only 10%. The petitioner states that this remaining land is landlocked and lacks access to the public road, making it impossible for the petitioner ingress to or egress from the said property. In the said circumstances, the petitioner submitted Exts.P3 and P4 representations to the Vizhinjam International Seaport Ltd., the requisitioning authority, requesting acquisition of the entire extent of 493.11 cents of the property including the leftover 55.43 cents, as severance would cause substantial damage and significantly diminish the value of the remaining property as a whole.

5. In furtherance of the above representations, the Special Tahsildar, the 4^th respondent, on inspection of documents and on enquiry, filed Ext.P5 report dated 30.05.2011 with a recommendation to the District Collector, the 3^rd respondent to consider the petitioner's request by including an extent of 0.0235 Hectares and 0.0600 Hectares in Survey Nos. 287/6 and 287/6-1 respectively in the alignment area of acquisition by the requisitioning authority and fresh requisition for acquiring 0.0298 Hectares and 0.1045 Hectares of land comprised in Sy. No.282/16-1 and 282/17. In Ext.P5 report, the Special Tahsildar has stated as follows:-

“1. Nearly 90% of the land owned by the company is proposed for acquisition excluding 10% of land owned by the Company.

2. Even though the land comprised in Survey Nos. 287/6, 287/6-1 owned by the company