THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE A.V. SESHA SAI WRIT PETITION No.8805 of 2010 Between:
1. T.N. Kuppan and another PETITIONERS AND
1. The Government of Andhra Pradesh, rep. by its Secretary, Land Acquisition, Secretariat Buildings, Hyderabad, and others.
RESPONDENTS ORDER:
This writ petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking a direction to the respondents to refer the matter to the competent civil Court under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, (hereinafter called ‘the Act’) for enhancement of compensation.
2. Heard Sri S.V. Muni Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Government Pleader for Land Acquisition for respondents apart from perusing the material available on record.
3. According to the petitioners, they are landless poor persons and the respondents acquired their lands situated in Sy.Nos.96-15A, 96-15C, 96- 4B, 96-4D, 96-6B, 96-7A, 96-7C, 96-8A, 96-11A, 98-1A, 98-1C, 98-1F, 96/4, 96/5, 96/2, 96/13, 96/14 of Sathrawada Village, Nagari Mandal, Chittoor District. According to them, an award was passed under the provisions of the Act, awarding meagre amount of compensation and they filed applications dated 01.12.2008 and 7.01.2010, requesting the authorities to refer the matter under Section 18 of the Act for proper adjudication and enhancement of compensation. The grievance, precisely, in the present writ petition is that the respondent-authorities are not referring their applications to the Civil Court under Section 18 of the Act despite the above representations made by them.
4. Section 18 of the Act stipulates that any person interested, who has not accepted the award may, by written application to the Collector, require that the matter be referred by the Collector for determination of the Court, whether his objection be to the measurement of the land, the amount of compensation, the persons to whom it is payable, or the apportionment of the compensation among the persons interested.
5. It is incumbent on the part of the respondent-authorities to refer the matter, if the application is submitted in accordance with the said provision of law. In the instant case, it is pleaded by the petitioners herein that they submitted applications dated 01.12.2008 and 07.01.2010 requesting to refer the matter to civil Court. No counter affidavit has so far been filed by the respondents.
6. For the aforesaid reasons, the writ petition is disposed of, directing the respondents herein to take appropriate action on the representations dated 01.12.2008 and 07.01.2010 said to have been submitted by the petitioners for reference under Section 18 of the Act in accordance with law, within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. No order as to costs. As a sequel, the miscellaneous petitions, if any, shall stand closed.
JUSTICE A.V. SESHA SAI.
26th June, 2014 Js.