- (1.) Prayer in this petition, filed under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India, is for issuance of a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to award compensation as per the provisions of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 [for short, "the 2013 Act"] on the ground that the land of the petitioners was acquired for the establishment of marketing yard at village Harike without payment of compenstion and the possession has been taken over.
(2.) Relevant facts for the purpose of decision of the present petition; that Jagtar Singh, predecessor-in-interest of the petitioners, was the owner in possession of the land measuring 6 Kanals 14 Marlas i.e., 1/3rd share of the land measuring 20 Kanals 2 Marlas situated in village Harike, Tehsil Patti, District Taran-Tarn. Jagtar Singh died on 20.03.1998 and the land owned by him was mutated in favour of his successors, who are petitioners No.1 to 3 in this writ petition. Notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 [for short, "the LAC Act"] was published on 13.07.2000 and notification under Section 6 of the LAC Act was published on 19.10.2000. According to the petitioners, the award was passed on 19.5.2001 in the name of Jagtar Singh, who had died on 20.03.1998 i.e., much prior to the issuance of notification under Section 4 of the LAC Act. As such, the proceedings for the acquisition of the land in question and passing of award against a dead person vitiates all the acquisition proceedings and the award passed is nullity. More so, the land was acquired without payment of compensation, though possession of the land was taken illegally.
(3.) We have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record.;