Case: Awadh Bihari Yadava  Vs. State Of Bihar

2. A batch of four Writ Petitions : CWJC No 8426/88, CWJC No. 6373/88, CWJC No. 3720/90 and CWJC No. 9000/89, was heard and disposed of by the High Court of Patna by a common judgment dated 30-7-1993. The appellants who obtained leave is S.L.P. (C) No.20490 of 1993, are the petitioners in CWJC No. 8426 of 1988. The intervenors and respondents in CWJC No. 6373/88 and the petitioners in CWJC No.3720/90, who have filed the civil appeals in pursuance to leave granted in S.L.P. (C) Nos. 21401-02 of 1993, are the appellants in the other appeals. No appeal is preferred by any of the parties in CWJC No. 9000/89 against the common judgment. The State of Bihar, its officials - the Patna Municipal Corporation, the Patna Regional Development Authority, the District Land Acquisition Officer, Patna, the Buddha Griha Nirman Sahyog Samiti Ltd. and its officials are the respondents in these appeals3. The main contesting respondents in the above appeals are - the State of Bihar, the Patna Regional Development Authority, and the Buddha Griha Nirman Sahyog Samiti Ltd. CWJC No. 6373/88 was a writ petition filed by the Buddha Griha Nirman Sahyog Samiti Ltd., praying that appropriate directions may be given to the respondents therein (the State of Bihar and its officials, Patna Municipal Corporation, Patna Regional Development Authority and District Land Acquisition Officer) to give effect to the directions given by the High Court in CWJC No. 3421/82 in the judgment dated 23-5-84, and for other consequential and incidental reliefs, including directions to the respondents to remove the encroachments or unauthorised constructions from the vacant lands which formed the subject matter of the notification. The four writ petitions were disposed of by a common judgment dated 30-7-1993, by a Division Bench of Patna High Court (S. B. Sinha and D. Sinha, JJ). By the aforesaid judgment the learned Judges directed the land acquisition officer to sign and complete the award in terms of the earlier order of the Court dated 31-7-1984, in Form 15 and to take further steps in terms of Section 12 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). CWJC No. 6373/88 was allowed to the above extent. In view of the above directions, the other writ petitions were dismissed. The learned Judges also observed that the office will start preparing separate records relating to the contempt of Court matters so as to pass necessary orders, and that the authorities before whom a suit and other encroachment proceedings relating to the land under acquisition were pending, shall expedite them. Aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment, the petitioners in CWJC No. 8426/88, the respondents and intervenors in CWJC No. 6373/88 and the petitioners in CWJC No. 3720/90, after obtaining special leave have filed the aforesaid appeals.

Reasoning:
In that case, the appellant before this Court prayed for quashing the demand made against him in respect of royalty. His case was that gypsum ore was less than the particular percentage of purity. Whereas according to the revenue, it was not so established and the substance contained a higher percentage of purity. The plea of the appellant was not accepted by the statutory authorities. The writ petition filed by the appellant in the High Court was dismissed on the ground that it involved determination of disputed questions of fact and the appellant had an alternate remedy. Against the dismissal of the write petition the appellant filed an appeal in this Court on a certificate granted by the High Court. He also filed a suit wherein the same question was agitated which was the subject matter of the writ petition. In these circumstances, this Court held that the appellant, in the said case, cannot pursue two parallel remedies in respect of the same matter at the same time. We are also of the view that ordinarily the above rule should prevail. There may be extraordinary situations or circumstances, which may even warrant, a different approach, where the orders passed by the Court are sought to be violated or thwarted with impunity. The Court cannot be a silent spectator in such extraordinary situations. The position obtaining herein is rather a different and unusual one. The writ petition was filed by the Society (C. W. J. C. No. 6373/88), praying for a direction to the respondents to give effect to the directions contained in the earlier judgment of this Court in C. W. J. C. No. 3241/82, dated 23-9-1984, and for other consequential or incidental reliefs. So, it cannot be said that in the instant case, the relief sought was to remove the encroachments from the lands or to remove the unauthorised constructions, which are covered by the encroachment case or the title suit. They may be incidental or consequential to the main relief, in giving effect to the earlier directions or orders of Court. But such relief cannot be withheld or denied. In the judgment dated 23-9-1984, rendered in C. W. J. C. No. 3241/82, the Court categorically held that non-passing of the award will not nullify the acquisition, the validity of the acquisition was upheld by the High Court and the Supreme Court, and the encroachments or the unauthorised structures were put up by persons in the property at their own risk, and it was further observed that once possession of the land was taken by the Government the fact that the owner of the land entered upon the land, will not obliterate the consequence of vesting, and allowed the writ petition filed by the Society, and quashed the steps taken for de-requisitioning of the land requested by the Authority and issued a writ of mandamus directing the Collector of Patna to prepare the award as expeditiously as possible. The plea of the respondents that the project itself was rendered an impossibility on account of excessive encroachments or unauthorised constructions, was repelled, and relying upon the decision of this Court in Balwant Narayan Bhagde v. M.D. Bhagwat, AIR 1975 SC 1767 , it was held that once possession of the land was taken by the Government, even if the owner of the land entered upon the land and resumed possession of it the very next moment, such act does not have effect of obliterating the consequences of vesting. In allowing the prayer of the Society in C. W. J. C. No. 6373/88, by a common judgment dated 30-7-1993, the High Court was only implementing its earlier order and directions in C. W. J. C. No. 3241/82 which it was bound to do in the circumstances. We hold that the directions and orders contained in C. W. J. C. No. 3241/82, which were not interfered with, by this Court in special leave petition, by order dated 21-3-1984, should be fully and effectively implemented. We hold soThis plea is without substance. In our view the proceedings dated 31-7-1984 is in substance an award passed in pursuance of the directions given by this Court in C. W. J. C. No. 3421/82. The entire land, for which request for acquisition was made by the Authority, was delivered over to the Authority. Possession was taken of the entire land and the plea that possession of a small portion of the land was not taken in against the record (See AIR 1974 SC 1886 at 1889)13. All the contentions urged on behalf of the appellants fail. The appeals are wholly without merit and we dismiss them with costs. It is distressing to note that the land acquisition proceeding which was initiated for a very laudable purpose, more than 37 years ago, is not yet complete. At one point of time, it was brought to the notice of the Court that even the files relating to the acquisition of land are not traceable. The High Court was constrained to hold, on an earlier occasion, that non-traceability of the files must be attributed deliberate destruction of the relevant files by the interested parties, and but for the intervention of influential persons, the Government would not have stayed the entire proceedings as it did on 3-5-1965. We are constrained to observe that the hands of the interested parties seem to be still active, and the intervention of such influential persons has not disappeared (AIR 1974 SC 1886 (1888)). A laudable and noble cause is delayed for more than 3 decades, under on pretext or the other. We express our anguish in the entire episode.