Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Jan 4: The High Court today observed that no one can be deprived of property without following the procedure of law and apart from payment of compensation for land acquisition and directed Rs 10 lakhs for token compensation to the owners of the land.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Javed Iqbal directed the Secretary, Rural Development Department to pay Rs 10 lakhs as token compensation to the owners of land for violating the norms while acquiring their land as also Rs 15 lakhs in lieu of acquiring their land.
The petitioners submitted before the court that their propriety land with trees was utilized by the then Government in the year 2012-13 for the construction of multi-purpose community hall in Village Batroo but without any lawful authority. The land was not acquired and no consent from them was taken to use it and they were not even paid any compensation.
They also added that initially, one kanal and 2 marlas of the land with two walnut trees was sought to be acquired but subsequently, the Assistant Commissioner (Revenue), Ramban submitted a report revealing that the entire 2 kanals and 3 marlas of land with all nine walnut trees would be needed for the purpose of construction of the multi-purpose community hall.
It is alleged that beside issuing the notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, till date no notification has been issued under Section 6 of the Act or Section 9 or Section 17 of the Act but even then possession of the land had been taken over and the hall has been constructed.
Collector Land Acquisition while admitting the fact submitted that after the issuance of notification of Section 4 of the Act, the case was submitted to the District Collector/Deputy Commissioner, Ramban for issuing necessary declaration under Sections 6, 7 & 17 of the Act and the matter for final acquisition of the land stands submitted to the Government and the notification under Section 6 of the Act would be issued once a decision in this regard is taken by the Government.
The DB after these pleadings said it is crystal clear that the land of the petitioner-owners has been utilized for the construction of a multi-purpose community hall but without there being a formal acquisition inasmuch as till date no declaration under Section 6 of the Act has been issued and published. The hall, the DB recorded, stands constructed without acquisition of land and without payment of any compensation.
“Right to Property and Land used to be a fundamental right but now it has been recognized as a constitutional right vide Article 300A of the Constitution of India. It provides that no one can be deprived of his property save by authority of law,” the DB recorded adding with “The aforesaid Constitutional right has been acknowledged to be akin to a fundamental right and more importantly a basic human right. Thus, no one can be deprived of his property without following the procedure prescribed in law and payment of adequate compensation”.
Underscoring the importance of Section 6 of the Act after the Section 4 of the Acts is issued, the court clarified that the proceedings for acquisition of any land commences with the issuance of notification under Section 4 of the Act proposing to acquire the land for public purpose and once the Government is satisfied on consideration of the report of the Collector that the land is needed for public purpose, it directs for issuance of a declaration under Section 6 of the Act. Such a declaration is the conclusive proof of the acquisition of the land.
While dealing with the instant case, the court finds that till date no declaration under Section 6 of the Act has been issued and published, meaning thereby that the land has not been finally acquired and there is simply a proposal to acquire the said land. “In such circumstances, when the land has not been finally acquired, the respondents could not have taken possession of the said land and utilized it for construction purposes”, read the judgment.
The action of the respondents, court added, in constructing a community hall on the land in question without waiting for the final acquisition of land and in the absence of the invocation of the urgency clause, is nothing but an abuse of the process of law depriving the petitioners from their valuable right to possess property.
Court in these circumstances held the respondent-authorities for guilty of violation of the human rights and further held that the land owners are liable to compensate for such infringement. “At the same time, since the community hall has already been constructed and the land cannot be restored to the petitioners, it is desirable that the respondents complete the acquisition proceedings at the earliest and make a final award so that the petitioners may be compensated in a fair manner as per the market-value”, the Court directed.
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