1 w5596.10 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY, BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 5596 OF 2010 1. Achut Raosaheb Gande, age 41 years, occup. Agril. 2. Raosaheb Marotrao Gande, age 56 years, occup. Agril. 3. Murlidhar Balaji Kangne (dead), through legal representative:- 3-A Kausalyabai Murlidhar Kangane, age 46 years, occup. Agril. 4. Ganesh Mukinda Wagh, age 42 years, occup. Agril. Nos. 1 and 2 r/of Wadi Ramasgaon, Nos. 3 and 4 r/o Mohapuri, Taluka Ghansangwi, District Jalna. Petitioners. versus 1. The State of Maharashtra, through Irrigation Department. 2. Special Land Acquisition Officer, (B & C), Jalna. 3. The Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Division (Local Sector), Jalna Division, Jalna. Respondents ------ Shri A.B. Kale, Advocate, for the Petitioners. Shri S.V.Kurundkar, Addl.G.P. for Respondents. 2 w5596.10 Coram: Smt. Nishita Mhatre and M. T. Joshi, JJ. Date : 5th July, 2011. Oral Jjudgment(Per: Smt. Mhatre, J.) 01. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith, by consent. 02. The petitioners are aggrieved by the fact that though the award has been passed in their favour under the Land Acquisition Act, the amount due to them has not been paid as yet, although the acquisition was completed in the year 2005. 03. The brief facts of the case are that, after issuance of Notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act in Govt. Gazette dated 7.11.2002, the lands of the petitioners were acquired, and the award was declared on 19.7.2005. Certain amounts are payable to the petitioners under this award. The petitioners requested the Respondents to pay them the amount. However, a part of the awarded amount has been paid to them. Since the balance amount was not paid to the petitioners, they approached the respondents. Representations were made from 2006 onwards, for payment of the amount to them. It appears that the unpaid amount is ` 2,61,187/=. As the petitioners have not received the said amount together with interest thereon, the present petition has been filed for directions against the respondents to pay the said amount. 3 w5596.10 04. An affidavit has been filed by the Special Land Acquisition officer, in which he has admitted that the aforesaid amount of ` 2,61,187/= is outstanding and payable to the petitioners. He has further stated that the acquiring body has been directed to pay the amount and once the amount is available with the acquiring body, it will be paid to the petitioners. 05. The Executive Engineer, Minor Irrigation Division, i.e. Respondent No. 3, has filed an affidavit, in which he has also admitted that the aforesaid amount is due and payable to the petitioner. However, he has stated that though the proposal for making the budgetary provision has been sent to the Water Conservation Corporation, and the said Corporation being a monitoring body, has to sanction the budget. The Corporation has not sanctioned the same and, therefore, payments have not been released to the petitioners. 06. In our opinion, this is a gross case where the Respondents have shirked their responsibility of paying the amount to the Petitioners for no rhyme or reason. Although it is admitted by all the respondents that the aforesaid amount is upaid and that it has been unpaid after the award was passed in the year 2005, no steps whatsoever have been taken to ensure that the petitioners get the said amounts. It appears from the affidavits filed by each of the respondents that they are abdicating their respective duties which has resulted in injustice to the Petitioners. 4 w5596.10 07. In these circumstances, the petition is allowed. The petitioners shall be paid the aforesaid amount of ` 2,61,187/= within 12 weeks from today, together with interest as payable under Section 34 of the Land Acquisition Act. The petitioners shall be paid costs of ` 10,000/= by the Respondents within eight weeks from today. 8. Rule made absolute, accordingly with costs quantified as aforesaid. (M. T. JOSHI, J.) ( SMT. NISHITA MHATRE, J. ) pnd/wp5596.10