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High Court Of Rajasthan
Judgename : B.S. Chauhan
Anil Kumar - Appellant
Versus
State of Rajasthan - Respondent
Civil Special Appeal No. 270 to 277 of 1997
Decided On : 03/06/1998
LAND ACQUISITION - SECTION 4 NOTIFICATION - PUBLICATION IN OFFICIAL GAZETTE - LIMITATION FOR DECLARATION UNDER SECTION 6 - EFFECT OF INTERIM ORDER - MAINTAINABILITY OF WRITS BY SUBSEQUENT PURCHASERS - DISMISSAL OF WRITS FILED BY SUBSEQUENT PURCHASERS - QUASHING OF ACQUISITION PROCEEDINGS FOR OTHER APPELLANTS.
Fact of the Case:
The State of Rajasthan sought compulsory acquisition of land for constructing residential houses in the revenue estate of village Bhuvana, tehsil Girwa, district Udaipur, under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. Various notifications were published in the local newspapers and the Official Gazette, and a declaration under Section 6 of the Act was made. Several writ petitions were filed challenging the acquisition proceedings on various grounds, including non-compliance with Section 4 of the Act, delay in making the declaration under Section 6, and discriminatory treatment by the respondents.
Finding of the Court:
The Court held that the publication of the notification under Section 4(1) of the Act in the Official Gazette is the actual publication and any publication in the local newspapers prior to that is an irregularity that does not vitiate the acquisition proceedings. The Court further held that the declaration under Section 6 must be made within one year from the date of the last publication of the notification under Section 4(1) in the Official Gazette, and that the interim order passed by the Court restraining the respondents from proceeding further in the acquisition proceedings did not extend to the publication of the notification in the Official Gazette and subsequent proceedings. The Court also held that subsequent purchasers of the land after the publication of the Section 4 notification are not entitled to challenge the acquisition proceedings.
Issues: 1. Whether the publication of the notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 in the local newspapers prior to its publication in the Official Gazette is valid. 2. Whether the declaration under Section 6 of the Act must be made within one year from the date of the last publication of the notification under Section 4(1) in the Official Gazette or from the date of the actual making of the declaration. 3. Whether the interim order passed by the Court restraining the respondents from proceeding further in the acquisition proceedings extends to the publication of the notification in the Official Gazette and subsequent proceedings. 4. Whether subsequent purchasers of the land after the publication of the Section 4 notification are entitled to challenge the acquisition proceedings.
Ratio Decidendi: 1. The publication of the notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 in the Official Gazette is the actual publication, and any publication in the local newspapers prior to that is an irregularity that does not vitiate the acquisition proceedings. 2. The declaration under Section 6 of the Act must be made within one year from the date of the last publication of the notification under Section 4(1) in the Official Gazette, and not from the date of the actual making of the declaration. 3. The interim order passed by the Court restraining the respondents from proceeding further in the acquisition proceedings does not extend to the publication of the notification in the Official Gazette and subsequent proceedings. 4. Subsequent purchasers of the land after the publication of the Section 4 notification are not entitled to challenge the acquisition proceedings.
Final Decision: The Court dismissed the writ petitions filed by the subsequent purchasers as not being maintainable and allowed the remaining appeals. The impugned Judgment dated 10-1-1997 passed by the learned single Judge was set aside, and the acquisition proceedings, including the Award, etc., were quashed qua the appellants in these appeals.
B.S. Chauhan, J.-The present Special appeals have been filed under Section 18 of the Rajasthan High Court Ordinance, 1949 against the Judgment and order dated 10-1-1997 passed in a bunch of forty-three S.B. Civil Writ Petitions treating S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 469/1996 (Bheru Lal v. State of Rajasthan) as the main writ petition. All the said writ petitions have been dismissed by the common Judgment . Being aggrieved and dissatisfied, all the petitioners therein have preferred the special appeals and the same are heard together and disposed of by the common Judgment .
2. The facts involved in these cases are not in dispute. The respondent-State sought for compulsory acquisition of about 4800 Bighas of land for the purpose of Plan Development, i.e., constructing residential houses in the revenue estate of village Bhuvana, tehsil Girwa, district Udaipur, under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter called as “the Act”). The subsequent developments have been as follows :--22.1990) 30.3.1990) 4.1990)
The notifications under 5. 4(1) of the Act 21-2-90 were published in the local newspapers. 20.5.1991Gram Panchayat, Bhuvana filed Writ Petition No.2255/91challenging the said notifications publishe in the local newspapers and this Court passed the following order:-“Meanwhile status quo, as it exists today, with respect to the land in question will be maintained.” 6.1992Notification u/S. 4 of the Act was published in the Rajasthan Official Gazette. 111.1992
Substance of said notification under Section 4 was affixed at the conspicuous places. 17.5.1993 19.5.1993
Substance of said notifications under Section 4 was published in the local newspapers. 25.1994Declaration under Section 6 of the Act was published in the Rajasthan Official Gazette. 10.1994 110.1994 Declaration under Section 6 was published in the local news papers. 210.1994
Writ Petition No. 2255 of 1991 filed by Gram Panchayat was dismissed as withdrawn.
.3. Personsinterested preferred the writ petitions challenging the acquisition proceedings but no interim relief was granted to any of the petitioners therein. The main grounds of challenge in all the petitions had been as under :--
.(a) the provisions of Section 4 of the Act were not complied with.
.(b) declaration under Section 6 of the Act was made after the expiry of the period prescribed under the Act.
.(c) the respondents gave discriminatory treatment as some land had been released by them on the applications of the land owners.
4. Respondents filed their reply raising the preliminary issues of delay and laches on the part of the appellant-petitioners and alleged that some of the writ petitioners had purchased the land subsequent to publication of Section 4(1) notification in the Gazette on 4-6-92 and the said writ petitions were not even maintainable. This Court, vide its impugned Judgment and order dated 10-1-97 dismissed all the writ petitions solely on the ground that Section 6 declaration was not made after expiry of the limitation prescribed by the Act as it as saved by the interim order passed by this Court on 20-5-199 1. Being aggrieved and dissatisfied, the present appeals have been filed.
5. Heard Mr. Dinesh Maheshwari, Mr. R.P. Dave and Mr. J.R. Beniwal, learned counsel for the appellants and Mr. Lalit Kawadia, learned counsel for the respondents and perused the record.
6. It is a settled proposition of law that notification under Section 4(1) of the Act is a condition precedent to the exercise of any further power under the Act. The process of acquisition starts with the notification under Section 4(1) of the act and, thus, the notification under Section 4(1) is a sine qua non. Thus, where there is no notification under Section 4, the machinery provided by the Act for any further action obviously cannot proceed. (Vide Babu Barkya Thakur v. State of Bombay, AIR 1960 SC 1203; Narendrajeet Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh, AIR 1971 SC 306 (1970 All LJ 70); Aflatoon v. Lt. Governor,
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