Case: Prahlad Singh  Vs. Union Of India

In exercise of the power vested in it under Section 4(1) of the Act, the Government of Haryana issued notification dated 17.4.2002 for the acquisition of the appellants land along with other parcels of land of village Baloure, Tehsil Bahadurgarh, District Jhajjar for development and utilization thereof for residential, commercial and institutional parts of different sectors ofpredecessors of the appellant and other landowners filed objections under Section 5-A(1) and prayed that their land may not be acquired because they had developed the same for agricultural activities like dairy, gardening etc. by investing huge money. They claimed that the acquisition proceedings were initiated without application of mind and there was no justification to acquire fertile and irrigated land. They also pointed out that land acquired for the same purpose in 1965 was still lying vacant and undeveloped. Another objection taken by the predecessors of the appellant and other landowners was that the area proposed to be acquired falls in the National Capital Region under the National Capital Region Planning Board Act, 1985 (for short, "the 1985 Act") and in the Regional Plan prepared by the National Capital Region Planning Board (for short, "the Board"), land in question has been shown as part of Green Belt/Green Wedge and, as such, the same cannot be acquired for residential, commercial and institutional purposes. In support of this plea, the landowners relied upon an order passed by this Court in C.A. Nos.4384 and 4385 ofit is not clear from the record as to how the Collector dealt with the objections and submitted recommendations to the State Government, this much is evident that the State Government issued declaration dated 10.4.2003 under Section 6 of the Act reiterating its resolve to acquire the entire area notified under Section 4(1) on 17.4.2002. Thereafter, the Land Acquisition Collector passed award datedafter pronouncement of the award, the predecessors of the appellant and other landowners filed 69 writ petitions questioning the acquisition proceedings on various grounds including non-consideration of their objections, non-application of mind by the Collector and the concerned authorities of the State Government and violation of the provisions of the 1985 Act and Regional Plan 2001 prepared by the Board. They pleaded that being a participating State, the State of Haryana is bound to act in consonance with the provisions of the 1985 Act and it cannot acquire land in violation of Regional Plan 2001. They relied upon the judgment of this Court in Ghaziabad Development Authority v. Delhi Auto & General Finance (Pvt.) Ltd. (1994) 4 SCC 42  and pleaded that the land which has been identified in Regional Plan 2001 as Green Belt/Green Wedge cannot be used for the purpose of urbanization. They also claimed that possession of the acquired land was still with them and they were cultivating theDivision Bench of the High Court did not deal with the grounds on which the appellants questioned the acquisition of their land including the one that the impugned acquisition was contrary to the provisions of the 1985 Act and Regional Plan 2001 and dismissed the writ petitions by observing that once the land has vested in the State Government, the writ petitioners do not have the locus to challenge the acquisition proceedings.

Reasoning:
We have given our serious thought to the entire matter and carefully examined the records. Section 16 lays down that once the Collector has made an award under Section 11, he can take possession of the acquired land. Simultaneously, the section declares that upon taking possession by the Collector, the acquired land shall vest absolutely in the Government free from all encumbrances. In terms of the plain language of this section, vesting of the acquired land in the Government takes place as soon as possession is taken by the Collector after passing an award under Section 11. To put it differently, the vesting of land under Section 16 of the Act presupposes actual taking of possession and till that is done, legal presumption of vesting enshrined in Section 16 cannot be raised in favour of the acquiringthe Act does not prescribes the mode and manner of taking possession of the acquired land by the Collector, it will be useful to notice some of the judgments in which this issue has beenreading of the Khasra Girdawari and Jamabandis, copies of which have been placed on record, shows that actual and physical possession of the acquired land is still with the appellants. Jamabandis relate to the year 2005-2006. Copies of notice dated 10/11.2.2011 issued by Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Ltd. relates to appellant No.1 - Prahlad Singh and this, prima facie, supports the appellants assertion that physical possession of the land is still with them. Respondent Nos. 3 to 6 have not placed any document before this Court to show that actual possession of the acquired land was taken on the particular date. Therefore, the High Court was not right in recording a finding that the acquired land will be deemed to have vested in the Statejudgments, which have been referred to in the impugned order really do not have any bearing on the case in hand because in all those cases, the Court had found that possession of the acquired land had been taken.