Devendra Singh & Ors vs State Of U.P. & Ors

3). The facts of the present appeal are as follows:-

4). Since the appellants' land was also included in the notification, they made representations dated 07.04.2010 and 20.08.2010 to the Land Acquisition Officer, the District Magistrate, Jyotiba Phule Nagar, the Chief Minister and the Home Secretary, Government of U.P. with the request that their land may not be acquired as they had raised construction of houses, tube wells and lands are under cultivation. They also suggested the availability of large tracts of alternative lands with no construction and irrigation facility situated within one Kilometer towards North. However, the concerned authorities did not reply to these representations of the appellants. Subsequently, the appellants, aggrieved by the said notification, filed Writ Petition No. 22252 of 2010 before the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, which was dismissed vide its Order dated 22.04.2010 without deciding any issue on merits on the ground that the writ petition is premature as the declaration under Section 6 has not been issued. The High Court further granted liberty to the appellants to raise all the available grounds, including the applicability of Sections 17(1) and 17(4) of the Act, in order to challenge the acquisition of their land once the State Government proceeds to issue Notification under Section 6(1) of the Act. Thereafter, the State Government issued a Notification dated 06.08.2010 under Section 6 read with Section 4 17(1) of the Act whereby, it directed the Collector of Jyotiba Phule Nagar to take possession of the said land on the expiry of 15 days from the date of publication of the Notice under Section 9(1) even in the absence of any award being made under Section 11. Eventually, the Public Notice dated 03.09.2010 was issued, which expressed the intention of the Government to take possession of the said land, in which it was directed to the appellants to appear before the Special Land Acquisition Officer, Jyotiba Phule Nagar. The appellants, being aggrieved, filed a Writ Petition before the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad interalia questioning the correctness of the Notification dated 5.3.2010 issued under Section 4 read with Section 17(4) and Notification dated 6.8.2010 issued under Section 6 read with Section 17(1) thereby dispensing with the opportunity of hearing and enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act. The High Court, vide its impugned Judgment and Order dated 8.10.2010, dismissed the Wirt Petition and allowed the respondents to proceed further with acquisition of the said land in terms of the Act on the ground that the construction of the District Jail is an urgent matter which has been mentioned in the Notification under Section 4 as the very purpose of acquisition of the land. Aggrieved by this Judgment and Order of the High Court, the appellants are before us in this appeal.

14). For the reasons aforesaid, we hold that the State Government was not justified, in the facts of this case, to invoke the emergency provision of Section 17(4) of the Act. Therefore, the appellants cannot be denied of their valuable right under Section 5-A of the Act.

15). In the result, the appeal is allowed. The impugned Judgment and Order of the High Court dated 08.10.2010 is set aside. No order as to costs.

...J. [ H. L. DATTU ] New Delhi, August 03, 2011.