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| DB imposes Rs 10 lakh cost of UT for dragging villagers in unnecessary litigation for decades | | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Feb 15: A division bench of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court (Srinagar wing) comprising Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Sanjay Dhar today imposed exemplary costs of Rs. 10.00 lakhs for dragging the villagers in unnecessary litigation for decades and for depriving them of their property without adequately compensating them for such a long period.
This significant judgment has been passed in a petition filed by villagers of Kanli-Bagh Baramulla seeking quashing of the entire acquisition proceedings in respect of about 150 kanals of the land which was notified for acquisition for the public purpose of establishing a housing colony at Sangri in Baramulla.
The DB while allowing the petition observed that it is an alarming situation that UT is acquiring private land without payment of full compensation. This kind of action or omission on the part of the UT authorities is not acceptable and cannot be allowed to continue for an indefinite period. We deprecate such practice and expect that the UT would henceforth take all possible measures to ensure passing of an award within a reasonable time and payment of fair compensation to the persons interested where ever the land is acquired.
The acquisition proceedings in its entirety are not liable to be quashed only for the reason that the final award in terms of the Act has not been passed even though the statutory period for making the award has elapsed when by virtue of Section 17 of the Act, possession of the acquired land has already been taken and the vesting is complete. On this ground not even the tentative award could be quashed. There is no purpose to quash it as it would merge in the final award. There is no justification for directing to take up fresh acquisition proceedings as the acquisition is already over.
The DB observed that in view of the above, the villagers may not be entitled to any of the reliefs specifically claimed in the present writ petition, nonetheless, in view of the residuary prayer to grant any other relief that may be deemed fit and suitable for the court and the power of the court to mould the relief so as to do justice to the parties, the court is left with no option but to make the interim mandamus absolute by issuing a writ in the nature of mandamus commanding the UT authorities to frame and pronounce the final award in respect of the above acquisition in accordance with the existing law within a period of three months from the date a copy of this order is produced before the Chief Secretary and DB hope that the Chief Secretary under whom all the departments of the UT function, would take positive action in the matter and see to it that the award as directed is passed and stiff action is taken against all those officers, who were involved and responsible for not allowing the award to be passed immediately after the tentative award had been prepared and announced.
The DB ordered that the villagers would be entitled to and paid compensation according to the final award along with all statutory benefits including the interest within a period of one month of the pronouncement of the final award after adjusting the amount which had already been paid to them under the tentative award. The DB allowed the petition with exemplary costs of Rs. 10.00 lakhs for dragging the villagers in unnecessary litigation for decades and for depriving them of their property without adequately compensating them for such a long period. |
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