- (1.) Order on Amendment Application No.152154 of 2016
(2.) Heard Sri S.K. Mishra, learned counsel for the applicants/ appellants and Sri S.S. Srinet, learned standing counsel for the respondents on Amendment Application No.152154 of 2016.
(3.) The arguments were heard at length on the amendment application and the order was reserved on 20.05.2016 recording their submissions as under: "Briefly stated, the facts of the case are that 782 bighas 16 biswas and 19 biswansis land of village Chhalera Khadar for construction of Okhla Barrage on the bank of Yamuna river towards the side of Ghaziabad, was acquired by notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1984 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') dated 19.12.1980 published in the U.P. Gazette on 28.03.1981 which was followed by notification under Section 6 of the Act. The possession was taken over on 05.01.1981. The award was passed by the Special Land Acquisition Officer on 10.05.1982 @ Rs.17,000/- per bigha. Aggrieved with the said award as many as 87 land holders filed objections against the award of the S.L.A.O., Ghaziabad challenging the rate of compensation and claiming that the compensation should not be less than Rs.50,000/- per bigha. After due consideration to various evidences including various sale deed exemplars, the reference court by judgment dated 23.05.1988 determined the market value of the acquired land @ Rs.21,000/- per bigha. Aggrieved with the said judgment, the appellants have filed the present first appeal. In the memorandum of the appeal, the appellants have prayed for relief to award compensation @ Rs.15/- per square yard being real market value of the acquired property as on the date of acquisition. The appeal was filed in the year 1988 as a defective appeal and on removal of defect, regular number to the appeal was allotted in the year 2008. Now after about 28 years, the appellants have filed the above noted amendment application on the basis of a judgment dated 16.02.2015 passed by this court in First Appeal No.255 of 1995 wherein compensation has been awarded at Rs.297/- per square yard in respect of some other land based on a Division Bench judgment in the matter of land acquisition for housing purpose by NOIDA under notifications issued and published at a much later point of time. Learned counsel for the applicants submits that the amendment application under Order VI Rule 17, C.P.C. is allowable inasmuch as the judgment has been rendered by an Hon'ble Single Judge in respect of some other similarly situated person determining the market value at Rs.297/- per square yard. In support of his submissions, he relies upon a judgment of Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Ambya Kalya Mhatre Vs. State of Maharashtra, 2011 9 SCC 325. Learned standing counsel submits that the amendment application is not only misconceived, misleading, beyond the scope of the provisions of Order VI Rule 17, C.P.C., beyond the original pleadings but also it is an attempt of fraud on public money. He submits that the acquisition itself was made prior to the year 1984 when the Act was not amended. The acquisition in question was of low lying lands on the bank of Yamuna river for construction of barrage which by no stretch of imagination can be equated with the land acquired for NOIDA for housing purpose. He submits that the amendment application is beyond the scope of provisions of Order VI Rule 17, C.P.C. It is an abuse of process of court. It deserves to be rejected. He further submits that as per paragraph-4 of the amendment application, wrong land acquisition reference and date of judgment have been given to which the learned counsel for the appellants/ applicants submits that it is merely a typographical error.";