1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY APPELLATE SIDE, BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.5554 OF 2010 Damu s/o Tukaram Jaybhaye, Age 75 years, Occ. Agri., R/o Kukadhira, Taluka Patoda, District Beed. ..... PETITIONER VERSUS 1. The State of Maharashtra, through its Secretary, Revenue Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai – 32. 2. The Collector, Beed. 3. The Special Land Acquisition Officer, Minor Irrigation, Beed. 4. The District Rehabilitation Officer, Beed. ..... RESPONDENTS ..... Shri V.A. Dhakne, Advocate for the petitioner Shri K.J. Ghute Patil, A.G.P. for respondents ..... CORAM: P.V. HARDAS & N.D. DESHPANDE, JJ. DATED: 25th June, 2010 ORAL JUDGMENT (PER HARDAS, J.) : 2 1. Rule. Rule returnable forthwith. With the consent of learned counsel for the parties, this petition is heard finally at the stage of admission. 2. The limited relief which the petitioner has prayed for in this petition is for quashing of the order dated 16.6.2010, passed by District Rehabilitation Officer, rejecting the application filed by the petitioner and also prays to direct the respondent No.4 to issue certificate to the petitioner as a project affected person. 3. Undisputedly, the land of the petitioner came to be acquired for the purposes of construction of percolation tank. The learned counsel for the petitioner has referred to the orders of similar nature, passed by the Division Bench of this Court in Writ Petition Nos. 3061 of 2008 and 513/2008, dated 25.8.2008 and 31.1.2008 respectively. The Division bench of this Court has held that acquisition of land for the construction of percolation tank would be acquisition of land for a project and, therefore, the land owner therein would be entitled to be issued with the certificate as a project affected person. 4. We, accordingly, allow this petition and quash and set aside the impugned order and direct the respondent No.4 to forthwith 3 issue certificate to the petitioner as a project affected person. This be done within four weeks from today. Rule is thus made absolute on the above terms with no order as to costs. (N.D. DESHPANDE, J.) (P.V. HARDAS, J.)