Court No. - 39 Case :- WRIT - C No. - 56255 of 2017 Petitioner :- Irfan Ahemad And 34 Others Respondent :- Union Of India And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Sanjay Kumar Pundir Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,A.S.G.I.
Hon'ble Dilip Gupta,J. Hon'ble Jayant Banerji,J.
(Delivered by Hon' ble Jayant Banerji, J) By means of this petition, the petitioners have made the following prayer:
“a. Issue a writ, of certiorari quashing of the impugned order dated 22.5.2017 and 4.9.2017 (Annexure no. 1 and 2) passed by the respondent no.2,( thereby rejecting the restoration application dated 28.10.2016 and its clarification application dated 30.8.2017 filed by the petitioners), as well as to be quashed the initial impugned ex-parte orders dated 11.6.2014 (Annexure no.3,4 and 5) passed by the respondent no. 2 for disbursal of the amount of compensation award U/s 20-H(2) of Railways Act 1989, respectively passed in favour of the respondent no.3 to 5 illegally excluding the petitioners/co-sharer's being claimants/interested persons in the said deposited compensation amount, despite they have raised their dispute for apportionment of the same, itself before the competent authority.
And further a writ of mandamus may be issued directing the respondent no.2 to pass an appropriate order and to make the reference u/s 20-H(4) of the Railways Act, 1959, on the recall application dated 28.10.2016, filed by the petitioners against the ex-party order of disbursal of the amount of compensation award dated 11.6.2014, U/s 20-A of Railways Act, itself passed by the Competent Authority (Respondent no.2), in favour of the respondent nos. 3 to 5, since the petitioners/co-sharers being claimants/interested persons in the said deposited compensation amount, has raised their dispute for apportionment of the same, otherwise the applicant shall suffer irreparable loss and injury, violating his constitutional rights guaranteed Under Article 300-A of the Constitution of India”.
The case of the petitioners is that they are co-sharers of the land at Khata No. 662 Plot No. 3665 total area 13-5-0 Bigha, situated in Village Shekhpura Kadeem. It is stated that this land has been acquired under Section 20-A of the Railways Act, 19891 on behalf of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India2. It has been stated that pursuant to the gazette notification under Section 20-A of the Act dated 20 April 2010 and the subsequent notification under Section 20-E of the Act dated 20 September 2010 an award dated 13 June 2011 was made by the Competent Authority in respect of the aforesaid land. It has been stated that no notice under Section 25- F(5) of the Act was ever issued/served upon any of the co- sharers/petitioners. It is alleged that respondent nos. 3,4 and 5 (Kurban, Furkan and Gufran respectively) filed their claim and after a collusive report from the Lekhpal, the Competent Authority without application of his judicial mind proceeded to pass the impugned orders dated 11 June 2014 in favour of the aforesaid respondents. It is stated that an application for restoration was filed by the petitioners for setting aside the exparte order dated 11 June 2014. However, by means of an order dated 22 May 2017, the application filed by the petitioners for setting aside of exparte order has been rejected. The petitioners have stated that they are co-sharers of the aforesaid plot in question and are entitled to their share in the amount of the award as compensation.
We have heard learned counsel for the petitioner, Sri Rajnish
1 The Act.
2 The Corporation Kumar Rai, learned counsel appearing for the Corporation and the learned Standing Counsel appearing for respondent no.2-Competent Authority/Special Land Acquisition Officer.
In view of the facts and circumstances of the case and the submissions advanced by the learned counsel for the parties, it is directed that a fresh application be filed by the petitioners regarding apportionment of the amount of compensation before the Competent Authority in view of Section 20-H(4) of the Act and the Competent Authority shall thereafter decide the same in accordance with law after hearing the parties concerned.
With the aforesaid observations, this writ petition is disposed of.
Order Date :- 29.11.2017 sfa/
( Dilip Gupta, J)
( Jayant Banerji, J)