IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No 10284 of 2011 Ramagya Singh @ Ramgyan Singh, son of late Kari Singh, Resident of village - Bagdove, Police Station – Nayagaon, District – Begusarai (Bihar) -Petitioner -Versus- 1 The State of Bihar 2 The Collector –cum- District Magistrate, Begusarai 3 The Land Acquisition Officer, Begusarai 4 The Anchal Adhikari, Motihari (Begusarai) -Respondents *** 2 01.07.2011 Petitioner claims that his lands in Pragana – Balia, P S – Nagagaon, District – Begusarai were acquired under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act in Land Acquisition Case No 3 of 2008-2009 for construction of Thana. An award was prepared for Rs 13,56,642/-. The award was prepared on 09.01.2011. The petitioner immediately filed an application in terms of Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act on 13.01.2011 for referring the matter to Civil Court of competent jurisdiction for deciding the adequacy of compensation. Petitioner’s grievance is that he is neither being paid the compensation, as awarded, which is inadequate nor is his matter being referred to the Civil Court by the State authorities, as required by law. Having heard the parties, with their consent, the application is being disposed of at this stage itself. So far as award is concerned, the petitioner would be at liberty to receive the same under protest. State would be obliged to immediately make the payment aforesaid to the petitioner in accordance with law. So far as reference application is concerned, Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act does not give any discretion to the Collector in 2 the matter, right, wrong, indifferent. If the reference application has been filed after the award has been prepared then the Collector virtually has to act as a post office in forwarding it alongwith copy of the award and other relevant papers to the Court of competent civil jurisdiction for adjudication in accordance with Section 18. The Collector, under the Land Acquisition Act before whom the application has been filed, should ensure that it is referred to the Court of competent civil jurisdiction immediately and not later than 15 days from the date of production of a copy of this order. With this direction and observation, the writ petition stands disposed of. M.E.H./ (Navaniti Prasad Singh)