IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.6584 of 1996 MRS.SUSHILA NARAIN & ORS Versus STATE OF BIHAR & ORS For the Petitioners : M/S Chittaranjan Sinha(Sr.Adv), Siddhartha Prasad, Advocate. For the State : AAG-3, Binita Singh(JC to AAG-3), Advocates. For Private Respondent No.5 : Mr.Sujeet Kumar Sinha, Advocate. ----------- 14. 22.09.2008. Learned counsel for the petitioners is permitted to correct the Plot Number indicated in Paragraph-6 of this writ application. 2. Petitioners are the purchasers of portion of land in Plot No.205, Thana No. 12 of Village Kumhrar. It is submitted on their behalf that they have raised houses over the purchased portion of land after plan for raising the house was approved by the P.R.D.A in Plan Case Nos. 178, 179 and 177 of 1981. The plan case number of petitioner no. 4 is presently not available with the counsel for the petitioners but counsel states that petitioner no.4 has also raised his house over the portion of land purchased by him in Plot No. 205 after the approval of the map by the P.R.D.A. Notwithstanding the claim of the petitioners, the lands in question along with the other lands became subject matter of acquisition proceeding for raising Bihar Finance Service House Construction Co-operative Society(hereinafter referred to as the Co-operative Society) as would appear from the declaration issued under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act(hereinafter referred to as “the Act”) dated 18.3.1983 as contained in Annexure-5 to this writ application. 3. Others whose lands became subject matter of the aforesaid land acquisition proceeding approached this Court in - 2 - C.W.J.C. No. 2755 of 1988 and other analogous matters including C.W.J.C. Nos. 11788 of 1993 and 9515 of 1994 and those applications were disposed of under orders dated 20.6.2001 reported in 2001(3) PLJR observing as follows; “The above chart would show that all the purchases were made either by the society or directly by members of the society or non-member purchasers from the owners. The purchases were apparently for construction of residential houses. The case of these petitioners in short is that after the purchase, they got their names mutated in the relevant records and are paying rent etc. They have also constructed houses, some of them by taking loan from the Bihar State Housing Co-operative Federation. As these petitioners appear to be bona fide purchasers of land, the purpose being the same for which the acquisition was made for the benefit of the respondent society, I am of the view that they stand on par with the members of the respondent society and they should not be disturbed from their possession of the land and/or the houses. Though the petitioners in C.W.J.C. Nos. 11788/93, 11789/93 and 9515/94 approached this Court very late, in fact, after the judgment of the Supreme Court, but as they stand on par with other petitioners in all other respects, I do not think it would be appropriate to deny them the relief allowed to other similarly situate petitioners. The claim of these purchaser-petitioners are fit to be allowed.” 4. Petitioner’s writ application for similar relief, although filed on 9.7.1996 but could not be disposed of under order dated - 3 - 20.6.2001(Supra) as under order dated 23.5.1979 this Court directed the writ petition to be placed for admission after disposal of C.W.J.C. No. 11788 of 1993 and 9515 of 1994. 5. It is submitted on behalf of the petitioners that case of the petitioners as also of those whose case was disposed of under orders dated 20.6.2001(Supra) is similar as petitioners also purchased the lands for the purposes of raising the house and had raised the house over the lands purchased after getting the map approved by the P.R.D.A. much before the publication of the declaration under Section 6 of the Act. Appreciating the aforesaid factual position another bench of this Court under orders dated 23.3.2007 directed the parties to see that some settlement is arrived at between them in the light of the observations of this Court made in Paragraph-34 of the judgment dated 20.6.2001. In deference to the observations of this Court contained in order dated 20.6.2001, the honorary Secretary of the Co- operative Society has informed the land Acquisition Officer, Patna that the lands purchased by the four petitioners in Plot No. 205 may be excluded along with lands purchased by Nalanda Grih Nirman Samiti and the remaining portion of Plot No. 205 be demarcated and handed over to the Co-operative Society. 6. Having heard counsel for the parties as also the State, I dispose of this writ application in the same terms as contained in Paragraph-34 of the order dated 20.6.2001 but while doing so, I direct the Land Acquisition Officer, Patna to verify the sanctioned map of each of the four petitioners and if those maps have been sanctioned - 4 - prior to the issue of the declaration under Section 6 of the Act as contained in Annexure-5 then the lands of the petitioners be excluded. This order is confined to only four petitioners as their writ application was pending on the date when the earlier judgment was passed by the Division Bench. 7. In compliance of this order petitioners should appear before the Land Acquisition Officer with the sanctioned plan on 20.10.2008 and if the plans have been sanctioned prior to the date of issue of the declaration under Section 6 of the Act then the order excluding their lands from the acquisition proceeding be passed within two weeks thereafter. Rajesh/ (V.N.Sinha,J.)