- (1.) These Appeals were admitted before the commencement of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (for brevity '2013 Act'). Upon commencement thereof, the Appellants have changed the tack of their challenge by seeking to invoke the deemed lapse of proceedings under Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act. As we have repeatedly opined, any determination under this Section must proceed sequentially. First, the factum of an Award under Section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, must be clearly established. The said Award must predate the commencement of the Act, i.e., 1.1.2014, by at least five years, i.e., the Award must have been passed on or before 1.1.2009. This having been established, if possession is found to not have been taken, or compensation not paid, then the proceedings shall be deemed to have lapsed. Thereafter, the appropriate Government, if it so chooses, may reinitiate acquisition proceedings in respect of the same land, but under the regime of the 2013 Act.
(2.) In the matter before us, a Section 4 Notification was issued on 13.11.1959, followed by a Section 6 Declaration on 12.7.1966. An Award was finally passed on 24.6.1968. The first requirement is thus made out. The possession of the land appears to be in dispute, as the Appellants allege that mere paper possession has been taken by the Respondent, while the Respondent alleges that possession was taken on 18.1.2000. Sagaciously, learned Counsel for the Appellants has steered away from this controversy. Instead, the Appellants allege that compensation has not been paid to them as is evident from the affidavit of the Respondent where it has asseverated thus: "That the procedure adopted for payment of compensation is that after announcement of the Award, the land owner makes an application before the Land Acquisition Collector for payment of compensation awarded to him under the Award by submitting the documents showing his title to the land. The land owner is also required to execute a surety bond before receiving the payment of compensation. The aforesaid procedure was adopted by other land owners of this acquisition for whom different Awards were passed." .. "Contents of para (11) are not correct in the manner they have been stated. The possession of the land was taken on 18.01.2000 after announcement of the Award. It is submitted that the Appellant had filed his claim in pursuance of notice issued under Sections 9 and 10 of the Land Acquisition Act and had participated in the acquisition proceedings. The Appellant was even present when the Award was announced and yet he did not take any steps to receive compensation. He neither filed any application nor presented his document to show his title on the land. These are the steps required to be taken by the land owners to receive compensation. The other owners of the land, which was acquired under the same Notification, had filed the appropriate application and submitted the documents showing their title and also filed surety bond before receiving compensation. When the Appellant himself did not come forward to receive the compensation, the authorities cannot be faulted with for non-payment of compensation".
(3.) The Respondent, on the other hand, has sought to contend that the procedure for payment of compensation is that after the announcement of the Award, the land owners make applications before the Land Acquisition Collector for payment of compensation by submitting documents showing their title to the land and by executing a surety bond. This procedure was followed by other land owners who then received the compensation due to them. Since the Appellants chose not to comply with this procedure, it cannot be said that the compensation was not paid to them.;