A.P.Sahi, J. - (1.) The petitioner has assailed the order of the Special Land Acquisition Officer dated 2.7.2003 whereby the application moved by the petitioner for referring the award under Section 18 has been rejected by the Addl. District Magistrate (Administration) and Special Land Acquisition Officer, Bulandshahar. The claim of the petitioner along with 15 other persons has been rejected on the ground that the applications have not been moved within the time prescribed under Section 18 and since they are heavily barred by time without any supporting explanation for the delay, therefore, the applications were not maintainable.
(2.) The present writ petition has been filed by only one of such applicants namely Shri Vijai Pal. Along with the writ petition, the petitioner has filed a copy of the application moved by him on 11.2.2000 before the Collector/Special Land Acquisition Officer, Bulandshahar. The said application discloses the following facts as admitted to the petitioner himself. The Notification under Section 4 for acquiring the land of the petitioner was published on 26.9.1981 and under Section 6 on 10.10.1981. The award was announced on 26.7.1982. The petitioner has further disclosed in para 7 of the said application that he received the notice for disbursement of the compensation upon which he filed Objection and received the compensation under protest. In view of this it is evident that the petitioner himself has admitted of being put to, notice with regard to disbursement of the compensation upon the award having been announced and of having accepted the amount under protest. Thus, the petitioner according to his own admission in the said application had knowledge of the award and of the compensation awarded in the said proceedings. In view of this, the petitioner ought to have moved the application for reference after he had received the notice as disclosed by him in the said application. The petitioner has very conveniently not disclosed the date, in the said application, on which he received notice and as to on which date he received the compensation under protest.
(3.) After the matter was heard by us and the petitioner was confronted with the aforesaid situation, a supplementary-affidavit has been filed by the petitioner wharein a statement has been made that no notice under Section 12 (2) of the Land Acquisition Act was served to the petitioner and that the award was not published in well known news-papers. It is further alleged in para 4 of the said Affidavit that the award was not sent to the petitioner either by registered post or Special Messenger and, as such, he had no knowledge about the declaration of the award. It is further alleged that neither the petitioner nor his representative was present at the time of the delivery of the award and, as such, the award was not delivered in his presence. Further in paragraph No. 8 of the said Affidavit it is alleged that the petitioner came to know about the delivery of the award on 23.1.2000 where after he filed a reference on 11.2.2000.;