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1982 Supreme(Raj) 48

Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur Bench
N.M. Kasliwal, J.
Sita Ram - Appellant
Versus
State of Rajasthan - Respondents
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1381 of 1981
Decided On : March 22, 1982

Advocates Appeared:
G.S. Singhvi, Paras Kuhad & A.K. Bhandari, for Petitioners; N.M. Lodha, for Respondent RIICO; G.S. Sharma, Additional Government Advocate.

Headnote:(a) Land Acquisition Act—Sec. 4(1) and Sec. 45 (4)—Compliance of the provisions of Sec. 45(4) in the matter of publication of order under Sec. 4(1) is only directory.(b) Land Acquisition Act —Sec. 17(4)—Neither recitals used in notification nor reply and affidavit filed by Govt shows that the concerned authorities applied their mind with regard to urgency of acquisition of land so as to dispense with the inquiry under Sec. 5A. Held, notification to that effect is invalid.(c) Land Acquisition Act—Previous acquisition proceedings dropped in 1971. The same land required by RIICO in 1981. Held, it is a public purpose and acquisition proceedings could be initiated now.

       Thus, if there was any non-compliance if the order issued under sub-section (1) of Section 4 in the matter of publication in accordance with the provision of sub-section (4) of Section 4 it was merely dirogatory and not mandatory. The aforesaid view also finds support from a bench decision of this Court in M/s. Rajasthan Udyog Limited vs. State of Rajasthan. (1) The petitioner as such can have no grievance for any non-compliance of the notification under Section 4(1) if the same for arguments sake has not been published strictly in compliance with Section 4(5) and Section 48 of the Act. The purpose of issuing this notification is merely to give a notice to the owner of the land that the authorised officer along with his servants and workmen shall enter bis premises for performing the functions of survey etc. mentioned in sub-section (1) of Section 4, of the Act. (Para 5)

       In the cases in hand also no affidavit has been filed that the mind of Secretary concerned or the Minister concerned or the Chief Minister was applied at all to the question whether it was a case necessitating the elimination of the inquiry under Section 5A of the Act. The recital used in the notification also does not show that mind was applied to the question whether the urgency was of such a nature as to require elimination of the inquiry under Section 5A of the Act. No such case has been made out even in the reply submitted by the Government much less it finds support from any documents placed on record. The original record was no doubt shown to the Court but from a perusal of that record also it was not revealed that mind was applied to the question that there was an urgency of such a nature which necessitated even the elimination of the inquiry under Section 5A of the Act. The case Narain vs. State of Maharashtra (supra) thus applies in all fours to the facts and circumstances of these cases and it is held that the part of the impugned notification dispensing with the provisions of Section 5A of the Act is invalid. (Para 13)

       Merely because the proceedings were dropped in the year 1971, it cannot be held that there is no public purpose now. The land in question is needed for the public purpose for the need of Rajas than Industrial Investment Corporation Ltd., Jaipur and which in may opinion was a public purpose and there cannot be any ground to hold that the land could not be acquired for such public purpose in 1981. Thus, I find no force in the arguments raised by the petitioners under this ground. (Para 15)

N.M. KASLIWAL J. — As identical questions of law are involved in these cases it would be convenient to dispose of these cases by one common order.

2. According to the petitioners, they are residents of village Moongaska in the vicinity of City of Alwar. Acquisition proceedings of 189 Bighas 10 Biswas of land was taken by the respondents and in pursuance thereof a notification under Section 4 of the Rajasthan Land Acquisition Act (hereinafter referred to as the-Act) was issued on 11th March, 1981. A notification dated 7th August, 1981, published in Rajasthan Gazette Part 1 (Kha) dated August 13, 1981, was issued under Section 6 and 17(4) of the Act. According to the petitioners they were served with individual notices under Section 9 of the Act when they came to know about the land acquisition proceedings. The acquisition proceedings are challenged mainly on the ground that:

(i)- Notification under Section 4(1) was not published in accordance with requirement of section 45 of the Act nor was it served on the petitioners;

(ii)- No notice under Section 4(5) was issued and put by the competent authority nor such notice was served on the petitioners;

(iii)- the State Government did not apply its mind on the question of urgency and dispense with the provisions of Section 5A without any basis;

(iv)- The State Government did not apply its mind to the question whether the land was waste or arable;

(v)- the acquisition proceedings were started in the year 1971 also for the purpose of Rajasthan Small Scale Industries Corporation, but after objections were raised by aggrieved persons, the same were dropped on 31st August, 1971 and therefore, there was no public purpose involved in the matter.

3. The State Government as well as the Rajasthan Industrial Investment and Development Corporation (RIICO) for whose use the lands are acquired, filed replies and took an identical stand that the land was needed for extension of industrial area at Alwar and RIICO made request for immediate action of acquiring the land and handing over the same to it. The State Government, therefore,issued a notification dated 8th August, 1981 after applying its mind to the urgency of the matter and the arable nature of the land. The notification under section 4(1) was issued on 11th March, 1981 and a public notice was also given in accordance with Section 4(5) of the Act. A copy of the proceedings as recorded in the daily diary of the Patwari has been submitted to prove the compliance of public notice in accordance with Section 4(5) of the Act. The land was admitted to be agricultural land and used for cultivation by the petitioners themselves as such the arable nature of the land was undisputed. It was also pleaded that the land in dispute had already vested in the State of Rajasthan and the State had thereafter handed over the possession of the land in dispute to RIICO on 2nd September, 1981 and since then RIICO was in possession of the land in question. The petitioners had no right to make any construction over the agricultural land and as such constructions, if any, raised over the agricultural land being unauthorised, the petitioners could not derive any advantage of such unauthorised constructions. It was also pleaded that the petitioners had not come with clean hands and obtained interim stay orders by mis-stating the facts. The petitioners did not correctly reproduce the impugned notification under section 17(A) and Section 6 of the Act. A very material portion with regard to clear mention of dispensing with the inquiry under Section 5A in the notification had been omitted by the petitioners. The petitioners also misstated and misrepresented about the factum of possession. Even they were dispossessed on 2nd Sept., 1981, but still they mentioned that they were in possession of the lands in question. It was also pleaded that various questions raised in these writ petitions were disputed questions of fact and as such the writ petitions deserve to be dismissed on this g








































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