IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.16382 of 2009 SAHEBPUR KAMAL KISAN MAZDOOR Vikas Manch through its convener Markandey Sharan Singh “ Suman”, S/o Late Shit Prasad Singh aged about 80 years resident of village Siraiya, PO Sahebpur Kamal, PS Sahebpur Kamal, Distt. Begusarai …….petitioner Versus 1. THE UNION OF INDIA through the General Manager, East Central Railways, Hajipur 2. The Chief Engineer, Construction (Ganga Bridge, Munger), East Central Railways, Mahendru Ghat, Patna 3. The Dy. Chief Engineer, Construction (Ganga Bridge, Munger), East Central Railways, Mahendru Ghat, Patna 4. The State of Bihar through the Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar, Patna 5. The Principal Secretary, cum Commissioner, Road Construction Department, Government of Bihar, Patna 6. The Secretary, Deptt. Road Construction, Government of Bihar, Patna 7. The District Magistrate, Begusarai 8. The Sub-divisional Officer, sub-Division- Ballia, Distt. Begusarai 9. The District Land Acquisition Officer, Begusarai ----------- For the petitioner: Mr. Vivekanand Pd. Singh, advocate For the railway: Mr. A. Amanullah, advocate For the State: Mr. J. P. Karn AAG IX ------------ 2 30-11-2009 Heard learned counsel for the petitioner, learned counsel for the State and learned counsel for the Railways. Through an earlier writ petition bearing CWJC no. 5375/2009 an advocate of this court had approached by way of public interest litigation for a direction to all concerned to take expeditious steps to complete the process of acquisition of land so that railway bridge over river Ganga near Munger may be completed without any delay. That writ petition was finally disposed of with suitable directions to expedite the process of acquisition of land and to complete the bridge expeditiously by order dated 24-8-2009. A copy thereof has been produced before us by learned counsel for the railways. The present writ petition has also been filed purporting 2 to be in public interest to stay the process of land acquisition likely to begin as per direction of the Secretary, Road Construction Department, Government of Bihar. Learned counsel for the petitioner first tried to persuade us that minutes of a meeting recorded by Secretary, Road Construction Department, Government of Bihar dated 5-4-2008 amount to the decision of the State Government. That point has been clarified in the earlier writ petition itself and we have no hesitation to hold that the minutes did not amount to a decision of the State Government. The matter was never put up before the State Cabinet and that has been clarified by the Secretary of the Department through annexure-6. The main thrust of the arguments advanced on behalf of the petitioner is that there is alternative route available for the railways on which earlier light railways was operational and hence, on technical grounds railways are acting malafide in laying down a different route which involves acquisition of land. It was faintly suggested that now a new policy has been formulated to compensate for acquisition of land by the railways. We are not concerned with the land acquisition proceeding or compensation at the present stage. Whether the railway line follows route A or route B is not the concern of this court nor was it decided earlier. The anxiety of the court, in public interest, was to ensure that the bridge in question whose foundation stone was laid in the year 2002 should not remain incomplete on account of any dispute and 3 all the concerned authorities must ensure that it is completed without any further delay. To achieve that we had directed the State Government to make the required land available to the railways. We are of the considered view that public interest does not require changing the earlier order or direction. Hence, the writ petition is dismissed. If the petitioner has better proposal for expeditious construction of the bridge, he will be at liberty to approach the State Government or the railways with its suggestion which may be considered on its own merits. BKS/- (Shiva Kirti Singh, ACJ.) (Shyam Kishore Sharma, J.)