Full Text
JUDGMENT
SMT SHEILA KHATRI & OTHERS ... Petitioners
For the Petitioners : Mr Sumit Bansal with Mr Ateev Mathur and Ms Richa Oberoi
For the Respondents 1 & 3 : Mr Yeeshu Jain and Ms Jyoti Tyagi.
For the Respondent 2/DDA : Ms Shobhna Takiar.
HON’BLE MR JUSTICE I.S. MEHTA
1. The petitioners seek the benefit of Section 24(2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (hereinafter referred to as „the 2013 Act‟) which came into effect on 01.01.2014. A declaration is sought to the effect that the acquisition proceeding, which is the subject matter of the present writ petition, ought to be deemed to have lapsed in view of Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act.
2. The Award under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as „the 1894 Act‟) was made vide Award No.15/1987-88 dated 05.06.1987 and it was in respect of, inter alia, the petitioners‟ land comprised in Khasra Nos. 2014:DHC:7331-DB 1883 (4-16), 1884 (4-16) and 1885 (4-16), measuring 14 bighas 8 biswas in all in village Chattarpur.
3. With regard to physical possession of the subject land, the learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that in this writ petition itself an order of stay of dispossession was passed on 09.07.1999, which was confirmed on 27.09.1999. That order continues to operate till today. The learned counsel for the petitioners, however, pointed out that the respondents allegedly took possession of part of the subject land falling in Khasra No.1885 on 30.12.2013 despite the stay granted by this court. As a result, the petitioners were compelled to file a contempt case being Cont. Cas (C) 688/2014. On 24.09.2014, this court, in the said contempt case, directed issuance of notice to respondent Nos. 2, 3 and 6 and also directed the respondents to comply with the said orders passed by this court on 09.07.1999 and 27.09.1999. On 25.11.2014, when the said contempt case was again taken up for hearing, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners stated that the respondents had purged the contempt and, therefore, he did not wish to press the contempt petition any further. Accordingly, the said contempt case [Cont. Cas(C) 688/2014] was disposed of as such. The learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the said statement was made in view of the fact that on 07.11.2014, a communication was sent by the Land Acquisition Collector / ADM (South) to the Commissioner (LM)(HQ), DDA, Vikas Sadan, New Delhi and the Additional Secretary (Land and Building), Vikas Bhawan, New Delhi to the effect that the possession of the land pertaining to Khasra No.1885 (4-16) of village Chattarpur had inadvertently been handed over to the DDA through the Land & Building Department on 31.12.2013 and that the same was required to revert to the recorded owners in the light of the order dated 27.09.1999 passed by this court in CWP No.1786/1999 (the present writ petition). The letter also requested the concerned revenue officials to complete the proceedings positively by 10.11.2014. It is pursuant to that that the possession reverted to the petitioners and it is for this reason that the learned counsel for the petitioners had, on 25.11.2014, stated that the respondents had purged the contempt. The aforesaid facts clearly establish that the physical possession of the subject land is with the petitioners.
4. Insofar as compensation is concerned, it is admitted position that the same has not been paid to the petitioners. However, the learned counsel for the respondents contend that the physical possession could not be taken because of the operation of the stay order passed in this petition. It is an admitted position that the stay order continues to operate till date. This aspect of the matter concerning the submission that possession could not be taken and compensation could not be paid because of the operation of the stay order and that in such a situation the respondents should not be prejudiced, was considered by this Court in the case of Jagjit Singh & Ors. vs. UOI & Ors: W.P.(C) 2806/2004 and other connected matters which were decided by this Court on 27.05.2014. In that decision, this Court observed as under:-
10. Furthermore, it would be instructive to refer to the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Pandurang Vinayak (supra) which has been relied upon by Mr Sethi, the learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners. In that decision the purpose and meaning of a statutory fiction was being considered. While doing so, the Supreme Court referred to an English decision in the case of East End Dwelling Co. Ltd. v. Finsbury Borough Council: (1952) A.C. 109 and in particular to an observation of Lord Asquith which was to the following effect:- “If you are bidden to treat an imaginary state of affairs as real, you must surely, unless prohibited from doing so, also imagine as real the consequences and incidents which, if the putative, state of affairs had in fact existed, must inevitably have flowed from or accompanied it.....The statue says that you must imagine a certain state of affairs; it does not say that having done so, you must cause or permit your imagination to boggle when it comes to the inevitable corollaries of that state of affairs."
11. Following the above observation, it is obvious that the deeming provision of section 24(2) is a legal fiction which is a created and an imagined situation. We ought not to be concerned with the inevitable corollaries that may flow out of it unless there is a clear prohibition in the statute itself. Once the state of affairs is imagined as real, the consequences and instances would also have to be imagined as real. Therefore, the fact that the possession could not have been taken by the respondents because of interim orders of the Court, would not in any way prevent this Court from imagining the state of affairs stipulated in Section 24(2) of the new Act. The only conditions that are required for the deeming provisions to be triggered are that the award must have been made five years or more prior to the commencement of the new Act and that either physical possession of the land has not been taken or that the compensation has not been paid. In fact in these writ petitions all the conditions stands satisfied. Therefore, the contention of the learned counsel for the respondent cannot be accepted.”
5. As a result, it is clear that the physical possession of the subject land is with the petitioners and the operation of the stay order will not enure to the benefit of the respondents. With regard to the element of compensation, it is an admitted position that compensation has not been paid in respect of the said land. The Award was also made more than five years prior to the commencement of the 2013 Act. Therefore, all the ingredients of Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act as interpreted by the Supreme Court and this Court in the following decisions stand satisfied:- (1) Pune Municipal Corporation and Anr v. Harakchand Misirimal Solanki and Ors: (2014) 3 SCC 183; (2) Union of India and Ors v. Shiv Raj and Ors: (2014) 6 SCC 564; (3) Sree Balaji Nagar Residential Association v. State of Tamil Nadu and Ors: Civil Appeal No. 8700/2013 decided on 10.09.2014; (4) M/s Magnum Promoters Pvt. Ltd v. Union of India & Others: Civil Appeal No.4284/2011, decided on 27.11.2014; (5) Rajiv Chowdhrie HUF v. Union of India & Others: Civil Appeal No. 8785/2013, decided on 10.12.2014; (6) Surender Singh v. Union of India & Others: WP(C) 2294/2014 decided on 12.09.2014 by this Court; and (7) Jagjit Singh & Ors. vs. UOI & Ors: W.P.(C) 2806/2004 decided on 27.05.2014 by this court.
6. As a result, the petitioners are entitled to a declaration that the said acquisition proceedings initiated under the 1894 Act in respect of the subject land are deemed to have lapsed. It is so declared.
7. The writ petition is allowed to the aforesaid extent. There shall be no order as to costs.
BADAR DURREZ AHMED, J I.S. MEHTA, J DECEMBER 22, 2014 dutt