P.K.LOHRA,J. - (1.) Petitioners, Khatedars of agricultural land comprised in Aarji Nos. 2168, 2169, 2170, 2390 and 2391 of Revenue Village Dhoinda, Patwar Circle Dhoinda, Tehsil and District Rajsamand, have preferred this writ petition praying therein under-mentioned reliefs: It is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that this writ petition may kindly be allowed with costs and by issuing an appropriate writ, order or direction the notices dated 7.10.2014 (Annex.6) may kindly be quashed and set aside and the respondent may be restrained from utilising only petitioners land for the purpose of construction/width of National Highway No.758, as mentioned in the notification (Annex.2) Any other order favourable to the petitioners may also be passed.
(2.) Succinctly stated, the facts of the case are that Union of India issued a notification dated 28th of December, 2012 under Section 3A of the National Highways Act, 1956 (for short, 'Act of 1956') intending to acquire land for widening National Highway No.758 to facilitate its conversion as four lane road at Rajsamand to Bhilwara Section. In the notification, it was clarified that any khatedar/land-owner may submit objection pursuant to notification under Section 3A of the Act of 1956 and the petitioners submitted their objections on 19th February, 2013. Competent authority, i.e., respondent No.4, decided objections vide its order dated 19th March, 2013. The petitioners have set out a case that in all 45 persons submitted their objections but all those objections were rejected by the competent authority in a slipshod manner without objective considerations. It is also averred that objections of the individual khatedars were not properly dealt with in the order dated 19th March, 2013. After rejection of the objections of various land-owners including the petitioners, declaration under Section 3D of the Act of 1956 was issued on 4th of October, 2013. The declaration under Section 3D of the Act of 1956 is followed by a notice dated 7th October, 2014 asking the petitioners to hand over possession of the land sought to be acquired and further submit requisite documents for facilitating payment of compensation amount. A specific plea is raised in the writ petition that so far compensation has not been paid to the petitioners.
(3.) Subsequently, yet another notification under Section 3A of the Act came into offing on 20th of February, 2014, which was published in the newspaper on 29th March, 2014 intending to acquire additional land for the purpose of construction of National Highway No.75. Pursuant thereto, petitioners were called upon to submit their objections as their land was part of the notification. However, at the behest of petitioners, no objection was submitted. In these circumstances, declaration of acquisition under Section 3D of the Act of 1956 was issued on 6th February, 2015. Therefore, as a consequence of declarations (Annexs. 5 and 8), the entire agricultural land, which was part of five Aarajis, mentioned herein above, became subject-matter of acquisition for construction/widening N.H. 758. The precise ground set out in the petition by the petitioners for craving the reliefs mentioned supra, as per the averments in the writ petition, is that acquisition has been carried out from the center point of the road towards both the sides. For ventilating their grievances, petitioners have also submitted an application on 22nd of January, 2015 (Annex.9) before District Collector, Rajsamand which was followed by a reminder on 13th of April, 2015. However, as per the petitioners' version, no heed was paid to the representation. Therefore, without questioning the acquisition proceedings, the mode of acquisition is the bone of contention in the writ petition and as such the action of the respondent is assailed. Acquisition is also challenged on technical pretext by submitting that the land is sought to be acquired uniformly from the center point of the road. An objection is also raised that no map as such was published while proceeding with the acquisition of land.;