Meaning of the expression ’person affected by objection.

In certain land acquisition proceedings Reference was made by the Collector under section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act to the City Civil Court, Madras, for determination of a specific objection, as to the amount of compensation, taken before him by the second respondent Pattabhirama Reddiar, who did not accept the award. The petitioners four in number, did not file objection to the award under section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, though they had appeared in the land acquisition proceedings at some anterior stage. They claimed in an application filed by them under Order 1, Rule 10, Civil Procedure Code and section 151, Civil Procedure Code before the City Civil Court that the acquired land belonged to an undivided joint Hindu family, that they represented one branch of it while respondents 2 to 6 represented another branch, and that consequently they should be made parties to the Reference under section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act pending before the City Civil Court, Madras. The lower Court found that the petitioners had not proved even on prima facie grounds that they constituted members of a joint family interested in the land in dispute. Secondly, it adopted the decision of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Ibrahim Sahib v. The Land Acquisition Officer1, in which it was held that a person who had not filed an application to the Collector for Reference under section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act was not entitled to ventilate his own grievances against the award in the Civil Court which deals with the Reference. The lower Court rejected the application. Against this decision the present revision petition is filed by the petitioners.

The scheme contained in Part III of the Land Acqusition Act-sections 18 to 28-provides for the exercise of a special jurisdiction by the Civil Court, and the scope of this jurisdiction is strictly circumscribed by the appropriate provisions contained in this part. Section 18 gives the right to “a person interested,” who has not accepted the award, to state the grounds of his objection, and make a written application within the prescribed time limit to the Collector, requiring him to refer the subject-matter of his objection to the Civil Court for decision. “A person interested” has been defined in section 3(b) of the Act as including all persons claiming an interest to the compensation and the term also includes a person who is interested in an easement affecting the land. In making the Reference, the Collector is required to give the particulars mentioned in section 19 of the Act and among the particulars are included the names of the persons whom he has reason to think are interested in such land. Section 20 requires the Court to give notice of the hearing of the objection (a) to the applicant, (b) to all persons interested in the objection except such (if any) of them as have consented without protest to receive payment of the compensation awarded and (c) if the objection is in regard to the area of the land or to the amount of the compensation, to the Collector. Section 21 of the Act restricts the scope of the enquiry to a consideration of the interests of the persons affected by the objection. Section 23 lays down certain principles for determining the amount of compensation. Section 53 says that save in so far as they may be inconsistent with anything contained in this Act, the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure shall apply to all proceedings before the Court under this Act. No doubt Order 1, Rule 10, on which the petitioners have relied, permits the Court at any stage of the proceedings to add as plaintiff or defendant any person whose presence before the Court may be necessary, in order to enable the Court effectually and completely to adjudicate upon and settle all the questions involved in the suit. (Section 20 of the Land Acquisition Act specifically gives a list of persons on whom the Court is required to serve a notice before determining the objection). The Juri