Petition challenging acquisition proceedings filed after Award has been passed and compensation paid is not maintainable.

Elipe Dharmarao, J.

1. The Government of Tamil Nadu issued a notification under Section 4(1) of the Tamil Nadu Acquisition of Land for Harijan Welfare Schemes Act, 1978, dated 12. 1995, proposing to acquire the lands of the appellants, for the purpose of providing house sites to Adi Dravidas. Challenging the said notification, the appellants herein have filed

W.P. Nos. 3356 and 3766 of 1966. Before the learned Single Judge, as could be seen from Para No.2 of the common order passed by the learned Single Judge, dated, 11. 2000, the following contentions were raised by the appellants/writ petitioners:

“(i) Notification published in the District Gazette under Section 4(1) of the Act does not specify the purpose for which the lands are sought to be acquired;

(ii) as per the provisions of the Act, particularly in the light of Section 4 of the Act, it is for the District Collector to satisfy and not the Government, but, in the 4(1) Notification, published in the District Gazette, it is stated that the Government of Tamil Nadu is satisfied and needed the lands in question for the purpose of Harijan Welfare Schemes, which cannot be sustained;

(iii) The Special Tahsildar, the third respondent herein, failed to serve his report to the petitioners which deprived the petitioners from making further representation.”

2. The learned Single Judge, answering all the said contentions against the writ petitioners, has dismissed both the Writ Petitions. Aggrieved, these Writ Appeals are preferred by the petitioners therein.

3. Before us also, the learned counsel for the appellants has reiterated the contention raised by him before the learned Single Judge that the Special Tahsildar, the third respondent herein, failed to serve his report submitted by him to the district collector containing his recommendations on the cause so shown for the decision of the District Collector, as per Section 4(3)(b) of the Tamil Nadu Acquisition of Land for Harijan Welfare Schemes Act, 1978 to the petitioners which deprived the petitioners from making further representation and would submit that on this sole ground, the entire land acquisition proceedings initiated by the respondents are vitiated.

4. In support of his contention, the learned counsel for the appellants has relied on a Full Bench judgment of this Court in R. Pari v. Special Tahsildar, Adi Dravidar Welfare, Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar District and another, 2006 (4) CTC 609 : 2007 (2) MLJ 706. In the said judgment, the Full Bench of this Court, placing reliance on a Constitution Bench judgment of the Honourable Apex Court in Managing Director, ECIL, Hydrabad v. B. Karunakar, AIR 1994 SC 1074, which was delivered in the context of service law, has observed in Para Nos.36, 37 and 38 as follows:

“36. It is true that the aforesaid observations relating to various facets of natural justice were made in the context of service law jurisprudence. One of the important as well as apparent tenets of the judgment is to the effect that where the enquiry is conducted by a person other than the deciding authority, furnishing of such report is considered as an important facet of principle of natural justice because at that stage it is not known as to what extent the deciding authority would be influenced or guided by the observations made in the report of the enquiring authority. This aspect of natural justice can be held applicable to the Act as the principle that a person before being deprived of his property should be given a reasonable opportunity, can be considered as part of law recognized under Article 300-A of the Constitution. As already noticed, the statutory provisions contemplate issuance of notice to show cause. The statute does not envisage any embargo regarding the extent and content of natural justice to be followed. Similarly the rules do not specifically contemplate any such embargo and the Form prescribed under the Rules need not be read as limiting the concept of reasonable op