IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.621 of 1999 BASANT SINGH son of Late Jagdishwar Prasad Singh, Resident of Village-Chaugain, P.S. Murar, District-Buxar at present residing at 1, Polo Road, Patna. Versus 1.THE STATE OF BIHAR 2.The Bihar State Electricity Board, through its Chairman, Vidyut Bhawan, Bailey Road, Patna-1. 3.The Secretary, Bihar State Electricity Board, Vidyut Bhawan, Bailey Road, Patna. 4.The Electrical Superintending Engineer, Buxar/Bhojpur at Arrah. 5.The District Land Acquisition Officer, Bhojpur. 6.Collector, Buxar at Buxar, District-Buxar. ----------- 12 12/10/2009 Heard Mr. V.Nath, learned counsel for the petitioner as also counsel for the respondents. Prayer in this writ application reads as follows:- “That this is an application for issuance of a writ of mandamus commanding the respondents to pay to the petitioner compensation money against acquisition of 3.66 acres of land of Nawanagar Village together with interest thereon.” Counsel for the petitioner does not dispute this fact that the land in question was acquired by the Bihar State Electricity Board on 21.12.1979. In fact he is also not in a position to deny this fact that interest of the petitioner for the land in question was confined only to 3.66 acres which at the time of acquisition was recorded in the name of his vendor. When these two basic facts are admitted the petitioner’s prayer for preparation of an award in his name must be and is hereby rejected. It was vendor of the petitioner who had sold the acquired land in question to him and thus such dispute for payment of compensation for the 2 acquired land is confined between the petitioner and his vendor in which the Respondents have no role to play. As with regard to inherent infirmity in the acquisition of land in question for construction of Power Sub. Station by the Bihar Electricity Board is concerned, it is to be noted here that as the petitioner was not owner of the land in question at the time of acquisition, he is not the aggrieved persons and cannot question the same. The writ petition was filed in the year 1999 and the acquisition is said to have been completed, as per own showing of the petitioner, in the year 1979. The delay of 20 years in moving this Court, muchless, assailing the proceedings on any ground cannot be sustained and in this connection reference may be made to the judgment of this Court in the case of ‘Keshav Rai & Ors Vs. State of Bihar & Ors’ reported in AIR 1985 Patna 70. Mr. Nath, in fact, would proceed to make a submission that today after construction of Sub-Station the petitioner is not interested in assailing the proceeding in any manner, but would only like that award of the land in question is made in his name. The petitioner unfortunately cannot get this relief because when he came into the shoes of his vendors, the land acquisition proceeding has already been completed and the award was also made in favour of his version who was the person interested in the land as his name stood recorded in revenue records on the date of acquisition. 3 The last submission of Mr. Nath that the Collector of the Buxar district in his counter affidavit has accepted that he has got no records to show that the land acquisition proceeding was ever completed, would hardly be of any help or assistance to the issues involved in this writ application. In a situation like this where the petitioner is virtually now trying to get the amount of compensation on account of his being duped by his vendor in relation to the land in question whose acquisition was already completed in the year 1979 by handing over possession of land in question to the Electricity Board, the remedy for the petitioner would be only to approach the appropriate Civil Court by suing his vendor for recovery of consideration amount under his sale deed and/or any other relief. It is however made clear that if such a civil suit is filed by the petitioner against his vendor the same will be decided on its own merits without being prejudiced by this order. With the aforementioned observation/direction this application is disposed of. Abhay Kumar (Mihir Kumar Jha, J.)