- (1.) THE main question involved in this writ petition is, whether award under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (the Act) in respect of a plot can be made in piecemeal.
(2.) A part of land in Meerut district was acquired for planned development of the area. In this respect, a notification under section 4 of the Act was published in the official gazette on 23.7.1960. This notification was amended and the amended notification for 316 acres of land was published on 9.2.1962. However, the notifications under section 6 of the Act in respect of the land was published on different dates. This land has now become part of Ghaziabad district and now held for the benefit of Ghaziabad Development Authority (the GDA). In this writ petition, we are concerned with the land situate in village Chikambarpur, main G.T. Road, near UP Delhi Border, Tehsil Loni, District Ghaziabad. In respect of this village, two different notifications under section 6 of the Act were published: one on 27.10.1964 and the other on 24.5.1965. However, the land in dispute in this writ petition was covered by notification dated 24.5.1965. Many persons had filed writ petitions challenging the notifications including Smt. Kamla Devi, Smt. Sudesh Kumari and Smt. Piniki Mehta. They filed writ petition no. 1461 of 1985 (the earlier WP) restraining the respondents from interfering with their possession in respect of Khasra sub-plots number 1/2, 2, 5, 6, 7/2, 3/2 and 9/2 of plot no. 2 of village Chikambarpur district Ghaziabad (the plots in dispute in the earlier WP). Therein, a further prayer was also sought to quash the notifications under sections 4 and 6 of the Act dated 9.2.1962 and 24.5.1965.
(3.) THE earlier WP was dismissed for want of prosecution on 13.8.1991 on the statement of the counsel for the petitioners. This writ petition no. 34703 of 2002 (the present WP) has been filed by five petitioners. Out of these Smt. Kamla Devi (petitioner-1) and Pinki Mehta (petitioner-4) were also petitioners in the earlier writ petition. Shri Sanjeev Mehta and Sri Mohit Mehta (petitioners-2 & 3) were not parties in the earlier writ petition but it is not disputed that they are successor in interest of Smt. Sudesh Kumari, who was a petitioner in the earlier WP. Only Smt. Vimla Devi (petitioner-5) is a new petitioner in the present WP.;