Says petitioners are free to use land as per their wishes
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 28: Division Bench of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh comprising Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal has held that private land cannot be acquired by the Government by merely issuing notification under Section 4 of the relevant law and such proceedings culminate only with the final declaration followed by an award.
The Division Bench was dealing with a writ petition wherein it was submitted that the land acquisition proceedings pursuant to the notification dated December 21, 2016 have lapsed and directions should be issued to the respondents that if they still require the land in question they may follow the procedure under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
The petitioners submitted that their land was notified to be acquired vide notification dated December 21, 2016 issued under Section 4 of the J&K Land Acquisition Act and thereafter a meeting of District Private Negotiation Committee (DPNC) was held on July 24, 2017. The compensation at the rate of Rs 15.50 lakh per kanal was agreed upon but could not be finalized as the matter was beyond the jurisdiction of the Deputy Commissioner concerned.
Accordingly, the matter was forwarded to the Divisional Commissioner on August 8, 2017 for his approval. The petitioners alleged that without finalizing the acquisition either by issuing a notification under Section 6 of the Act or the DPNC, the respondents cannot proceed further in the matter and since in the meantime, the J&K Land Acquisition Act has been repealed, it is incumbent upon the respondents to enter into de-novo exercise to acquire the land according to the provisions of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
The respondents submitted that necessary approval has been received from the Financial Commissioner Revenue through Divisional Commissioner vide letter dated June 16, 2020 for the payment of compensation as settled in DPNC.
However, the counsel for the petitioners submitted that neither the acquisition proceedings have been finalized nor the acquisition stood completed even by private negotiation under Rule 24 of the J&K Land Acquisition Rules. “Upon approval of the higher authorities, the DPNC is supposed to issue notice to the land holders of their readiness to conclude the transaction whereupon handing over of the possession and execution of the sale deed would have to be done”, the counsel further submitted.
After hearing both the sides, the DB observed, “the petitioners have not been issued and served with any notice under Section 24 nor the handing over of the possession and execution of the sale deeds have been taken meaning thereby that the private negotiations have not been concluded as per the mandate of Rule 24”.
“The issuance of notification under Section 4 of the Act is only a proposal to acquire the land and the said proposal doesn’t get materialized and concluded until and unless there is a declaration under Section 6 of the Act to finally acquire the land followed by an award under Section 11 of the Act”, the DB said, adding “such a procedure has not been followed in the present case which means that the land has not been finally acquired”.
“Pursuant to the approval of the higher authorities, there is no material on record to show that the proceedings for acquisition by private negotiation stood completed in accordance with the Rules”, the DB further said, adding “we are of the opinion that the acquisition proceedings in respect of land in question has not been completed in accordance with the provisions of the J&K Land Acquisition Act as no final declaration to acquire the land was ever issued under Section 6 of the Act”.
Making it clear that the land of the petitioners has not been acquired, the DB said, “the petitioners are free to use it in the manner they like and in case the respondents still feel that the land is needed for any public purpose they are free to acquire in accordance with the prevailing law”.
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