JUDGMENT

Whether an Award passed in terms of Section 11 (2) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, ‘the Act’) is outside the scope of Section 28A of that Act, is the question involved in this writ petition. The question, in fact, received consideration by a learned Single Judge in Beena Sarasan v. State of Kerala [2025 KHC OnLine 231] wherein it was answered in the negative, holding that does not make any distinction between an Award passed under (1) or (2), and therefore, an awardee under (2) is also entitled to seek re-determination of compensation as per of the Act.

2. The following is the factual matrix:

The landed property, having an extent of 1.60 ares, in the name of Sri.Jayakumar, was acquired for the development of JNNURM/KSUDP project of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. Compensation was fixed at Rs.2,61,058/- and the same was received. While so, Sri.Jayakumar passed away. The petitioners are his legal heirs. Admittedly, no reference under Section 18 has been preferred. The petitioners would contend that they could not seek reference under Section 18 due to the chronic kidney disease of Sri.Jayakumar, which ultimately took his life. Ext.P9 is the judgment rendered