JUDGMENT M. Katju, J.
1. The petitioners have alleged that there is an award of the Special Land Acquisition Officer under Section 28A of the Land Acquisition Act in their favour but they have not been paid the amount awarded to them.
2. A large number of writ petitions are filed in this Court praying that the amount awarded by the Special Land Acquisition Officer or by the Judge on a reference under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act should be directed to be paid to the petitioner. In our opinion, this Court should not entertain these writ petitions because there is an alternative remedy under Section 31 or 26 (as the case may be) of the Land Acquisition Act.
3. If the amount has been awarded by the Special Land Acquisition Officer, then the awardee has a right to apply under Section 31 of the Land Acquisition Act before the Collector for payment of the amount awarded. On the other hand, if the amount has been awarded under Section 18 by the Judge on reference, then there is an alternative remedy under Section 26(2) of the Land Acquisition Act, because as stated in Section 26(2), the Judgment of the learned Judge under Section 18 amounts to a decree and a judgment under Section 2 Clause (2) and Clause (9) of the C.P.C. Hence the amount awarded under Section 18 can be executed as a decree of a Civil Court and an application for this purpose should be filed before the Civil Court. Hence, in both kinds of such cases, there is an alternative remedy of applying under Section 26 or 31 of the Land Acquisition Act. This Court is hardly the appropriate forum under Article 226 of the Constitution for applying fof executing the award or the judgment particularly when there is an alternative remedy.
4. For the reasons given above, this writ petition is dismissed on the ground of an alternative remedy before the Collector under Section 31 of the Land Acquisition Act.
5. The Collector will decide the petitioner's claim under Section 31 of the Land Acquisition Act in accordance with law very expeditiously since a long time has expired from the date the award was given.
6. With the aforesaid observations, the writ petition is disposed off.