Court No. - 34
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 38712 of 2019 Petitioner :- Amit Kumar Jaiswal Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 03 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Raj Kumar Vaishya Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Ashok Kumar Pandey
Hon'ble Sudhir Agarwal,J. Hon'ble Rajeev Misra,J.
1. Heard Sri Raj Kumar Vaishya, learned counsel for petitioner, learned Standing Counsel for respondents 1, 2 and 3 and Sri Devendra Kumar, learned counsel for respondent 4.
2. With the consent of parties, we proceed to decide writ petition finally at this stage.
3. This writ petition has been filed against order dated 25.10.2019 passed by Special Land Acquisition Officer, Azamgarh rejecting petitioner's representation in respect of payment of compensation regarding land in dispute, i.e., Survey Plot No/Gata No. 176 situate in Village Madhuvan, Pargana and Tehsil Sagri, District Azamgarh.
4. Perusal of order dated 25.10.2019 shows that petitioner's representation has been rejected on the ground that land in question is recorded as 'abadi' in revenue records and, therefore, no award can be made in respect of land comprised in Survey Plot No./Gata No. 176 acquired for construction of National Highway No. 233.
5. It is submitted by learned counsel for petitioner that petitioner's grandfather Achchey Lal had purchased land in dispute from one Kisun Das Agarwal, vide registered sale deed dated 11.6.1951. Petitioner filed said sale deed along with other documents with his representation but the same has been ignored by respondent no.3 while passing the impugned order.
6. Any land recorded as 'abadi' does not mean that it cannot be owned by a private person. Thus, once petitioner claims ownership of land in dispute on the basis of registered sale deed, revenue entry of said land in revenue records as 'abadi' would not be of any legal consequence to refuse award of compensation for such land which is acquired for construction of National Highway. Furthermore, acquisition can be done only in respect of private land and not Government land. Once answering respondents have proceeded to acquire land, they cannot refuse compensation. In view of above, impugned order passed by respondent no.3 cannot be sustained.
7. Writ petition is, accordingly, allowed. Impugned order dated 25.10.2019 passed by Special Land Acquisition Officer, Azamgarh is quashed.
8. Matter is remanded to the authority concerned to examine the matter afresh in the light of observations made above and pass appropriate order afresh in accordance with law expeditiously, preferably within a period of one month from the date of production of a certified copy of this order.
Order Date :- 28.11.2019 Ram Murti