Surinder Singh, J. - (1.) THE Collector under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. Punjab, Chandigarh, passed an order that the award had been announced on December 11, 1973, and the application filed by Jowala Bai petitioner on April 3, 1974, under section 18 of the Act, for reference to the Court was barred by time and hence he rejected that application. Subsequently, Jowala Bai and two others filed an application before the Collector giving various reasons for reconsideration of the matter. The learned Collector, however rejected this application also mainly on the ground that it had no power to review under the Land Acquisition Act.
(2.) IN the present Revision Petition, Mr. N.L. Dhingra, learned counsel for the petitioners has rightly cited certain authorities of this Court to contend that when a party has not been heard by a Court or a Tribunal, the said Court or Tribunal had inherent jurisdiction to review its order. In view of this circumstance, the order refusing to reconsider the matter by the Collector was not justifiable. The Revision Petition is consequently accepted, the impugned order of the Collector is set aside and the case is sent back to the Collector with the direction that he should consider the application moved by the petitioners on merits and then decide the same instead of merely rejecting it on the ground of lack of jurisdiction to review. The parties, through their counsel have been directed to appear before the Collector on November 3, 1980. There will be no order as to costs.;