- (1.) The Government of Maharashtra acquired the land in question in favour of the appellant Voltas Limited, (hereinafter referred to as Company for short) and issued a Sanad (order of allotment) with the specific condition that the Company shall not in any way whatsoever, alienate the said land or any portion thereof by way of sale, mortgage, gift, lease, exchange or otherwise howsoever except with the prior permission in writing, of the Government. After about 24 years, the order of allotment was stayed and the Company was called upon to show cause as to why the land should not be forfeited and the amount of Rs.14,11,45,851/- towards unearned income be not charged as it violated the terms and conditions of the order of allotment by granting rights to the developers for the construction of houses and selling them after development, thereby benefiting to a large extent. After submitting their reply, the respondents issued the impugned orders against which two writ petitions were preferred by the Company for setting aside the orders imposing the charge towards unearned income and the demand notice, both of which were dismissed by the impugned common judgement dated 10th March, 2003. The Division Bench of the Bombay High Court held that there was a breach of terms and conditions of the order of allotment and, therefore, it was open to the respondents to take the appropriate proceedings in accordance with law, including the recovery of unearned profit.
(2.) For proper understanding of the question involved, it is necessary to state a few facts as hereunder: The appellant, a Public Limited Company engaged in manufacturing air conditioners, refrigerators and other items, set up a factory in the year 1966 at Thane, to carry out manufacturing activities and for the said purpose, purchased land admeasuring about 98,000 sq. mtrs. at village Majiwada from a private party. For additional land needed to effectively continue with the manufacturing process, the Company approached the Government of Maharashtra with the request to acquire land for the company under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 read with the Land Acquisition (Companies) Rules, 1963. On its request, the State of Maharashtra acquired more than one lakh square metres of land and handed it over to the Company. An order of allotment was issued in favour of the Company on 20.1.1969 with certain terms and conditions mentioned in the said order, the Condition No.7 of which reads as under: The Company shall not in anywise whatsoever alienate the said land or any portion thereof by way of sale, mortgage, gift, lease, exchange or otherwise howsoever except with previous permission in writing of the Government.
(3.) It was also mentioned in the order of allotment, that the land will be vested with the Company and shall be held by it as its property, to be used for the purpose of constructing dwelling houses for workmen employed by the Company and the provisions of the amenities directly connected therewith, subject to the provisions of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 and the Rules framed thereunder. It was also stipulated that, except with the previous permission in writing of the Government, the land shall not be transferred, for any purpose other than that for which it was acquired. A condition regarding the construction of work was also imposed, with a further proviso, that should the Company commit a breach of the terms and conditions, the transfer of land in favour of the Company would be treated as null and void and the land would revert back to the Government.;