The right to property is a constitutional right under Article 300-A, requiring due process and compensation for any deprivation.

JUDGMENT :

1. The petitioners in the instant petition have implored for the following reliefs:-

(i) “A writ of the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ commanding the respondents to take all necessary steps for payment of compensation, either by way of compulsory acquisition mode or by private negotiation for the remaining portion of land falling in then Khasra No. 330,331 and 309 in estate Bemina that has been taken over by respondents in connection with Flood Spill Channel but for which no compensation has been paid as yet.

(ii) In alternative an appropriate writ directing the respondents to return the possession of land back to petitioners after removing the earth-filling there from and pay adequate compensation at the rate of RS. 10,000/ per kanal per year on account of damage caused to property as also on account of use and occupation of petitioners’ land by the respondents during the intervening period”.

2. The facts under the shade and cover of which the aforesaid reliefs have been prayed and as are stated in the petition are that the petitioners 1 & 2 claimed to have jointly owned and possessed 14 Kanal and 17 marlas of land covered under Survey No. 330 and 331 in estate Bemina, District Budgam, out of which 4 Kanals and 13 Marlas were in Survey No. 330 and remaining 10 Kanals and 4 marlas were in Survey No. 331, having been devolved upon the petitioners by inheritance.

 It is being next state that the petitioner 3 with his co-sharers as well owned and possessed 14 Kanals and 5 marlas of land in Survey No. 309, which consisted of 19 Kanals and 09 marlas, in estate Bemina, Budgam.

 It is being further stated that somewhere in 1988-89, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir initiated a process of construction of leftover portion of Jhelum Flood Spill Channel in estate Bemina and onwards which flood channel have had been conceived and constructed many decades back to avoid floods in the Srinagar city, and the construction of the portion from Bemina District Budgam towards north side up to Zainakote, Srinagar, of the proposed Flood Spill Channel had been left midway to be completed in future and in furtherance thereof the said process for completion of leftover portion was initiated somewhere in 1988-89.

 It is next stated by the petitioners that out of the aforesaid land, owned and possessed by them some land had already been acquired for the construction of the Flood Channel in question and that out of Survey No. 309, land measuring 10 Kanals and 14 Marlas was supposed to come underthe construction of Flood Channel and was formally sought to be acquired, whereas, similarly, land measuring 1 Kanal and 18 marlas, and 7 Kanals and 02 marlas was sought to be formally acquired from Survey No. 330 and 331, respectively.

 It is being further stated that somewhere in the year 1989, the petitioners were paid compensation qua the land acquired by the respondents, measuring 10 Kanals and 14 marlas out of Survey No. 309, 01 Kanal and 18 marlas from Survey No. 330 and 07 Kanals and 02 marlas from Survey No. 331, however, the remaining land then owned by the petitioners being 03 Kanals and 11 marlas in Survey No. 309, 02 Kanals and 15 marlas in Survey No. 330 and 03 Kanals and 02 marlas in Survey No. 331, was not acquired by the respondents and the petitioners , as such continued to remained in possession thereof as owners.

 It is being further stated that though the land was acquired by the respondents and the compensation to the land owners including the petitioners was paid in the year 1988-89 and that no further construction at ground level of the Flood Channel upto Zainakot was undertaken, a process thereof however, came to be initiated by the respondents in the year 2007-08 and the land acquired in the year 1988-89 of the petitioners by the respondents was actually taken over by the respondents in this regard.

 It is being next stated by the petitioners that while constructing the Flood Channel in question, the respondents