ORAL ORDER

(PER : HONOURABLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE MRS. JUSTICE SUNITA AGARWAL)

1. No one has put in appearance to press the writ petition. On the last occasion, leave note was circulated by the learned advocate for the petitioner. We may note that the present petition has been filed seeking of quashing of order dated 27.6.2024 passed by the competent authority namely the Deputy Collector/ Special Land Acquisition Officer, Bhavnagar in rejecting application under Section 28A, which has been filed seeking for compensation awarded under the reference Court award dated 29.12.2017 in Land Reference Case No. 18/2010. It seems that the application filed by the petitioner dated 19.3.2018 was rejected initially vide order dated 10.8.2021 stating that relevant papers to decide the matter had not been appended along with the application. The said order was challenged in Special Civil Application No.

15871/2022, which was decided vide judgment and order dated 22.8.2022, whereby while setting aside the order of rejection, the petitioner was relegated to file necessary documents, with the directions to the competent authority to decide the same.

2. In the order impugned rejecting the application, it is noted that reference Court award dated 29.12.2017 in reference case No. 18/2010 along with other reference cases, had been challenged in First Appeal No. 398/2019 along with other appeals No.401/2019, etc., as indicated in the order itself and all the applications are pending consideration before this Court. In this scenario, the compensation awarded by the reference Court dated 29.12.2017 cannot be accorded to the petitioner by invoking the provisions of Section 28A of the Land Acquisition Act.

3. Noticing the above facts, we do not find any error in the order impugned. No error can be said to have been committed by the Deputy Collector/ Special Land Acquisition Officer to deny additional compensation to the petitioner for invoking the provisions of Section 28A of the Land Acquisition Act, based on a reference Court award, which is the subject matter of challenge in First Appeal, substantive litigation before this Court.

4. The writ petition is, thus, devoid of merits. Hence dismissed.

5. However, it goes without saying that in case the reference Court award dated 29.12.2017 attains finality, it would be open for the petitioner to file a fresh application under Section 28A after affirmation of the reference Court award, which shall have to be decided on merits and cannot be rejected being beyond limitation.

No interference is called for. The writ petition stands disposed of with the above observation.

(SUNITA AGARWAL, CJ )

(PRANAV TRIVEDI,J)

SAJ GEORGE