- (1.) V. K. Khanna, J. This writ petition has been filed by petitioner No. 1, which happens to be a Housing Co-operative Society registered under the U. P. Co-operative Societies Act and also by other petitioners who happen to be its office-bearers. The petitioner-society was formed with the object of acquiring land for its members in order to build their own houses and to do incidental work in connection therewith. More than 60 acres of land situated in village Chhalera Bangar and Suthari were acquired by the Society between Jan. , 1973 to Sept. , 1975.
(2.) U. P. Industrial Area Development Act, 1976 was enacted for the constitution of an authority for the development of certain areas in the State into industrial and urban township and for matters connected therewith. The State of U. P. by a notification dated April 17, 1976 declared the area comprising the villages mentioned in the Schedule annexed to the notification to be an industrial development area within the meaning of the 1976 Act to be called "new Okhla Industrial Development Area (hereinafter referred to as the "noida" ). Soon after the constitution of the Noida Authority a notification under Sections 4 and 17 of the Land Acquisition Act was published in the U. P. Gazette extraordinary dated 30- 4-1976 stating that the land in village Chhalera Bangar was needed for the planned industrial development. The land of the petitioner-society was included in this notification (Annexure-3 to the writ petition ). Notification under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act was thereafter issued on 1-5-1976 (Annexure-4 to the writ petition ). In respect of the other land of the Society situated in village Suthari on 1st June, 1976 a notification under Section 4 was issued which was followed by a notification under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act on 16-9-1976 (Annexures-7 and 8 respectively to the writ petition ). It appears that the petitioner-society and also a large number of other registered co-operative societies, whose land has been acquired by the NOIDA authority for the purposes of an Industrial Development of the Area made representation to the concerned authorities for getting land in lieu of the land acquired in the Complex NOIDA. After exchange of correspondence between the Society and the NOIDA Authority a Sub-Committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Sri B. J. Khodaiji, Commissioner and Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Government of U. P. to look into the matter. The Sub-Committee invited the representatives of the Co-operative Societies also which included the representative of the petitioner-Co-operative Society. It appears that the first meeting of the Sub-Committee was held on 10-12-1977 in which the co-operative societies suggested that they be given land according to their requirement in the complex which may be nearest to Delhi. The next meeting was held on 4th Mar. , 1973 (Annexure-15 to the writ petition) and in this meeting it was agreed that only the land of the society acquired by the authority would be considered for giving alternative land and that too upto the maximum of 35 to 40 per cent of the total area. The representative of the Society told the Sub-Committee that the views of the members of the Co-operative Societies will be informed to the Sub-Committee. It appears that thereafter the petitioner-Society was pressing for allotment of land at the place where their original land was situated and also that the development charge should not be charged more than Rs. 40 to 50 per square meter including the cost of the land. The next important meeting of the Sub-committee was held on 19-10-1978 in which it was decided that sites will be given to various Co-operative Housing Societies on the land nearest to Delhi on the basis of the Noida Master Plan which was under consideration and was yet to be finalised. It was also clarified by the Chief Executive Officer that 35 per cent of the area offered to the members of the society will be plotted area out of the total acquired area of the society. The Chief Executive Officer NOIDA by his letter dated 21st April, 1980 (Annexure-20 to the writ petition) informed that it was proposed to offer developed plots of land to bona fide members of a registered co-operative house building society whose lands were acquired by U. P. Government for NOIDA. The approximate rate at which land was offered was Rs. 130/- per square meter in sectors 30, 31, 34, 39 and 40. In para 3 of the aforesaid letter certain conditions were laid down and one of the conditions was that amount equal to 20 per cent of the price of the area of developed plots computed at Rs. 130/- per square meter will have to be sent in favour of NOIDA and thereafter tripartite agreement shall have to be entered into between the NOIDA Authority, the Cooperative Housing Society and the Individual Member of the Society after the finalisation of the layout plan and the allotment by the authority. The petitioners and respondents have made a statement before us that the date of deposit of the amount of 20 per cent was extended for all the societies up till 15th Sept. , 1980 by the Authority. The petitioner, however, filed the present writ petition on July 29, 1980. The writ petition was admitted. The stay application was, however, rejected. It may also be noticed that on 29th April, 1980 (Annexure-22 to the writ petition), the Acting Chairman of the petitioner-society informed the Chief Executive Officer that the arbitrary decision taken by the NOIDA Authority in its letter dated 24-4-1980 was not acceptable to the Society. The emphasis in the letter was that assurance was given to allot the land in Sector 27 for which the Society had submitted several representations earlier to allot the same on the basis of the policy of the Government to rehabilitate the Society members on the original land. The Chief Executive Officer by his letter dated May 15, 1980 however, intimated the General Secretary of the Federation of the Cooperative Housing Society that the authority has finally decided to offer Sectors 30, 31, 36, and 40 to the Cooperative House Building Societies and that 20 per cent of the amount has to be deposited. Admittedly the petitioner did not deposit the 20 per cent amount as fixed by the Authority by 15th Sept. , 1980. However, it sent a telegram on 30th April, 1980 which has been quoted in para 11 of the supplementary affidavit to the following effect : "re our legal notice twentieth May stop writ petition challenging land acquisition prices and location of plots admitted in the Allahabad High Court on twentynine July stop in the meantime without prejudice request extend date of offer to our society for depositing twenty per cent until Thirty September because all members have not paid the money stop request confirm stop letter follows stop regards. The U. P. Residents Employees Co-operative House Bldg. Society Ltd. 1/5139 Lane 5 Balbir Nagar Shahadara-Delhi-119932. " It appears that NOIDA Authority did not extend the time and the petitioners have not been allotted any land in the NOIDA Complex.
(3.) IN the present writ petition the petitioner has first challenged the notifications issued under Sections 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act contained in Annexures-3, 4, 7 and 8 to the writ petition. The learned counsel for the petitioner in connection with the challenge of the aforesaid notifications has only adopted the points which had been raised in Civil Misc. Writ No. 4220 of 1979, Kendriya Karamchari Sahkari Grih Nirman Samiti Limited Chhalera District Ghaziabad v. New Okhla INdustrial Development Authority (decided on Dec. 11, 1981)*. As has been observed above, all these notifications were published in the year 1976. The writ petition has been filed in the year 1980 i. e. more than 3 years after the publication of the notifications. The writ petition in so far as the aforesaid challenge is concerned suffers from the vice of laches. Moreover, the impugned notifications have been upheld by a Division Bench of this Court by a reasoned order. We agree with the reasoning given in the aforesaid decision and negative the contentions of the petitioners regarding the challenge to the aforesaid notifications on merits also. * Reported in 1983 UPLBEC 240. It has then been urged that the action of the authority in not allotting land to the petitioner was mala fide. Reliance has been placed on the supplementary affidavit which has been filed along with an amendment application which has been allowed by us. On the basis of the averments made in para 13 onwards of the supplementary affidavit the learned counsel for the petitioner has urged that the action of the authority in not allotting land to the petitioner was mala fide. If one reads the aforesaid paragraphs it becomes clear that mala fides have been alleged against Sri N. S. Chaudhari, Chairman, Neo Okhla Industrial Development Authority, mainly. Sri N. S. Chaudhari has not been made a party in person and the averments in the supplementary affidavit in connection with mala fide cannot even otherwise be relied upon. The Supplementary affidavit has been sworn by one Ved Prakash Sharma and the contents of paras 13, 14 and 15 have been sworn on the basis of the information received from Sri Dan Singh. Sri Dan Singh has not chosen to file an affidavit. The affidavit of Sri Ved Prakash Sharma is thus based only on hearsay and no reliance can be placed on such affidavit. Plea of mala fide raised by the petitioner is thus liable to be rejected in the absence of Sri N. S. Chaudhari as a party in the writ petition and also because affidavit of Dan Singh, who could have personal knowledge of the averments made in paras 13, 14 and 15 of the supplementary affidavit has not been filed.;