The judgment emphasizes the principle of the rule of law and the constitutional right against deprivation of property without due process, as enshrined in Article 300A of the Constitution.

ORDER :

1. In the instant petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution, the petitioners have prayed for the following reliefs:

i) By issuance of a 'Writ of Mandamus', or any other appropriate Writ, Order or direction, the Respondents be directed to handover the possession of the land measuring 03 Kanals and 17 Marlas falling under Survey No.771 and 02 Kanals and 10 Marlas covered under Survey No. 766 situate in Mouzai Zewan, Pantha Chowk, Srinagar to the Petitioners forthwith, along with mesne profits with respect thereto;

ii) By issuance of a 'Writ of Mandamus', or any other appropriate Writ, Order or direction, the Respondents be directed to pay compensation in favour of the Petitioners for the illegal occupation of their aforesaid property for decades;

iii) By issuance of a 'Writ of Prohibition, or any other appropriate Writ, Order or direction, the Respondents be prohibited from transferring the aforesaid landed property of the Petitioners to the Respondent No.8 or any other Government Department Corporation.

2. Before proceeding to advert to the petition in hand, a brief background as emerges from the perusal of the petition would reveal that the petitioners initially herein filed OWP 643/2008 against the respondents herein praying therein the following reliefs:

“Mandamus commanding the respondents to assess the market rate of the land of the petitioners under the occupation of Handicrafts Department covered by khasra no. 771 measuring 4 kanals and khasra no. 766 measuring 2 kanals 10 marlas and thereafter the petitioners be paid the compensation with interest thereon from the date of occupation i.e. 1962. They be further directed to pay Jabrana @ 18% from the (date) petitioners are entitled to under the Land Acquisition Act.

“The respondents be further directed to pay compensation for the land used by the respondents since 1966 till the compensation is paid to the petitioners.”

3. The aforesaid petition came to be disposed of by this court on 4.8.2011 in the following manner:

“The respondents are directed to consider the claim of the petitioners for payment of compensation for the land details whereof are given in the judgment and pass appropriate orders which may include payment of compensation in accordance with law to the petitioners written a period of three months from the date copy of this order is served.”

4. The aforesaid petition was followed by another petition filed by petitioners, being OWP 431/2013, after the respondents were stated to have formed a committee subsequent to passing of the order/judgment dated 4.8.2011 in OWP 643/2008 which committee prepared a report based whereupon the Tehsildar South Srinagar addressed a letter to the Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, which came to be assailed in the said petition by the petitioners.

5. The petition OWP 431/2013 supra as well came to be disposed of by this court on 28.2.2017 holding that the court is not in a position to render a decision for grant of compensation to the petitioners or to decline the relief as there is no final conclusion drawn by the revenue authorities that the land in question was either acquired or not, as such issued a direction to the collector to take final decision in the matter based on the documents relied upon by the petitioners as well as the revenue record and pass a reasoned order on the merits of the petitioners’ claim for compensation in relation to the land in question within a period of six to eight weeks inasmuch as providing an opportunity to the petitioners to project their case before the collector.

6. The instant petition has been filed by the petitioners fundamentally on two-fold grounds, firstly that the respondents did not take any decision pursuant to the orders passed by this court in earlier writ petitions on the one hand and on the other hand the respondent Industries and Commerce Department being actually in possession of the land in question intend to transfer the same to the State Industrial Development Corporat