Court No. - 39
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 56752 of 2017 Petitioner :- Sita Ram Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Lakshmi Kant Pandey Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Dilip Gupta,J. Hon'ble Jayant Banerji,J.
This petition has been filed for a direction upon the Special Land Acquisition Officer, District Sant Ravidas Nagar (Bhadohi) to decide the application filed by the petitioner under Section 28-A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act') at an early date.
It transpires from the record of the writ petition that the petitioner had filed application for seeking re-consideration of the amount of compensation on the basis of the award made by the Reference Court in L.A.R. No. 244 of 1989 (Mahendra Kumar Vs. Collector Varanasi) on 29 August 1991 but the application has remained pending.
The petitioner had earlier filed Writ-C No.- 66090 of 2014 which was disposed of on 9 December 2014 with a direction to the Special Land Acquisition Officer to decide the application of the petitioner expeditiously and preferably within 90 days after examining the genuineness and maintainability of the claim.
The Special Land Acquisition Officer passed an order on 26 November 2015 holding that though the application of the petitioner is maintainable and it has been filed within stipulated time but as First Appeal No. 427 of 2009 that had been filed by the Collector against the award of the Reference Court dated 29 August 1991 was pending it would not be appropriate to decide the application.
Learned counsel for the Petitioner has pointed out that First Appeal No. 427 of 2009 (Collector Vs. Mahendra Kumar) has since been dismissed by the Court by the judgement and order dated 18 April 2017 and as such it is obligatory on the part of the Special Land Acquisition Officer to take a decision on the application filed by the petitioner under Section 28-A of the Act.
Learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel appearing for the State-respondents states that a decision shall be taken on the application filed by the petitioner at an early date.
This petition is, accordingly, disposed of with a direction to the Special Land Acquisition Officer to take a decision on the application filed by the petitioner under Section 28-A of the Act expeditiously and preferably within a period of two months from the date a certified copy of the order is filed by the petitioner.
Order Date :- 29.11.2017 A. V. Singh (Dilip Gupta,J.) (Jayant Banerji,J.)