IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD. WRIT PETITION NO.1197 OF 2010. Sudhamati w/o Sopan Magar and ors. ...PETITIONERS. VERSUS The State of Maharashtra and ors. ...RESPONDENTS. ... Shri A.B. Kale, Advocate holding for Shri A.M. Hajare, Advocate for Petitioners. Smt. A.V. Gondhalekar, A.G.P. for Respondents. ... CORAM : A.M. KHANWILKAR AND S.S. SHINDE, JJ. DATE : 11th MARCH, 2010. PER COURT: Heard learned Counsel for the parties. 2 Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. The learned A.G.P. waives notice on behalf of respondents. With consent of the parties, taken up for final hearing at the stage of admission. 3 The grievance brought before us in this petition is to direct the respondents to determine the amount towards interest payable to the petitioners under Section 34 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, the Act) and to pay the same, expeditiously. Such representation was made by the petitioners to the authority. However, no decision has been taken thereon as of now. It is not in dispute that the petitioners’ lands have been acquired pursuant to the notification under Section 4 of the Act dated 28th April, 1987 and award has been passed on 14th September, 1990. The possession of the said lands has been taken over from the petitioners on 1st January, 1989, much before the award. 4 According to the respondents, possession was taken by private negotiations. The fact remains that the petitioners lost possession of their lands as back as on 1st January, 1989. As per section 34 of the Act, the petitioners would become entitled for interest from the date when they lost possession of the acquired land. The stand taken on behalf of the respondents by the learned A.G.P. is that, against the award passed in relation to the acquired lands, the petitioners have carried the matter before the District Court by way of reference and the same is pending. For that reason, no further amount has been paid, except the initial part payment to the extent of 80% of the compensation amount which has been made over to the petitioners before the award was passed. The fact that the petitioners have carried the matter in reference against the award dated 14th September, 1990 does not extricate the authorities to pay the balance amount to the extent of 20% of the compensation amount. As a result of the default to pay such amount, the interest component becomes payable to the petitioners by virtue of section 34 of the Act. As aforesaid, section 34 of the Act provides that the Collector shall pay the amount awarded with interest thereon at the specified rate. That has to be paid to the claimant or deposited in Court on or before taking possession of the land. In the present case, admittedly, possession of the acquired lands has been lost by the petitioners much before the passing of the award. In such a situation, law obliges to pay 100% award amount with interest thereon, as soon as the award is passed. Similar argument was canvassed on behalf of the authorities in a case recently decided by us on 8th March, 2010 in the matter of Krishnarao Damodhar Joshi and others vs. the State of Maharashtra and others, in Writ Petition No.681 of 1994 (Aurangabad Bench). We have rejected the said argument and observed that the stand taken by the concerned officials was not germane, much less, justified in terms of the provisions of section 34 of the Act. 5 In the circumstances, following the same decision, we dispose of this writ petition by directing the authorities to immediately compute the interest component in terms of section 34 of the Act. In this case, the petitioners would be entitled for interest as per the proviso to section 34 of the Act, since the payment of balance 20% amount towards compensation to be received by the petitioners is obviously much after one year, amount towards compensation or part thereof which has not been paid or deposited before the expiry of the specified date. Besides, the department will have to initiate action against the then officials to recover the interest component, in particular, the then Special Land Acquisition Officer and/or the then Collector, on account of whose inaction the balance compensation amount remained outstanding thereby causing loss to public exchequer, commensurate with the amount payable towards interest. It will be open to the department to first pay interest component as is determined from the public exchequer and later on to be recovered from the erring officials for the inappropriate and untenable stand taken for releasing the amount towards balance compensation to the petitioners for the relevant period. All questions in that behalf are left open, to be decided on its own merits. The respondents shall determine and pay the interest component to the petitioners, expeditiously and in any case, not later than three months from today. Petition is allowed. Rule is made absolute on the above terms. [ S.S. SHINDE ] [ A.M. KHANWILKAR ] JUDGE JUDGE Kadam/*