Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, J. - (1.) Denial of passage to remaining agricultural land of the petitioners after acquisition of the part of the land by the respondents for Dedicated Freight Corridor between Delhi -Mumbai has led to the present litigation. A grievance has been made in the present writ petition that the objections raised by the petitioners were not dealt with in right perspective by the Land Acquisition Officer and denial of access to agricultural fields of the petitioners has amounted to violation of right of property vested in the petitioners under Article 300A of the Constitution of India. A further grievance has been ventilated in the present petition that the respondents have not extended effective hearing as provided under Sec. 20(E) of the Railways Act, 1989 (hereinafter to be referred as the Act of 1989) and since the Land Acquisition Officer has performed a mere formality to dispose of the objections raised by the petitioners, therefore, in the present writ petition it has been prayed that notification (Annx.1) dated 6.11.2008 which was published in daily Rajasthan Patrika on 7.2.2009 under Sec. 20A(1) of the Act of 1989 be quashed alongwith notification dated 15.9.2009 (Annx.2) issued under Sec. 20(E) of the Act of 1989 alongwith award dated 10.9.2010 (Annx.3).
(2.) Before this court recapitulate the facts of the case, it will be necessary to highlight a significant development which has taken during the pendency of the writ petition. Respondents considering the importance of Dedicated Freight Corridor which is being built with the assistance of Japanese Government to overcome the stay granted by a coordinate Bench of this court on 13.9.2013 has come with an offer that for a time being, a passage can be provided to the petitioners to access their agricultural fields so that a project which is of national importance is not withheld. In the light of affidavit filed by the respondent Railways to this effect, this court shall proceed to decide the present writ petition by noticing the brief facts as under: Indian Railways had drawn a blue print for linking four metropolitan cities of country namely Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. They termed their dream concept to be 'Golden Quadrilateral' and decided that two diagonal tracks on two existing trunk routes of Kolkata -Delhi on eastern corridor and Mumbai -Delhi on western corridor be laid for giving impetuous to freight movement. It is pleaded in the writ petition that to achieve above object while presenting Railway budget for financial year 2005 -06, announcement was made in the Parliament. In April, 2005, in Japan -India summit both the Prime Ministers of India and Japan agreed for mutual cooperation for building Dedicated Freight Corridor. Japanese Government, according to the respondents, agreed to fund the project and to achieve above objective, a special purpose vehicle for construction, operation and maintenance of the dedicated freight corridor, called 'Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited' was established. The Act of 1989 was amended on 28.3.2008 for the purpose to acquire land for construction of Dedicated Freight Corridor i.e. for specific project and the matters related thereto.
(3.) The western corridor covers a distance of 1483 km. of double electric line track from JNPT, Mumbai to Dadir, Delhi via Surat -Vadodara -Ahmadabad -Palanpur -Ajmer -Phulera -Ringus -Rewari. Part of the track was also to be laid in the State of Rajasthan and hence land for this purpose was also acquired. The petitioners to present writ petition are joint khatedars of land bearing Khasra Nos. 515, 517, 518 and they are also sole and joint khatedars of land falling within Khasra No. 520 situated in Village Samvatsar, Tehsil Kishangarh, District Ajmer. It is pleaded in the writ petition that since the petitioners are agriculturists, land is their only source to earn the livelihood. A grievance has been made in the present petition that by acquisition of land, petitioners have been denied passage/access to their remaining agricultural land and therefore, petitioners will be left with no source of income. It is a case of the petitioners that they submitted their objections to this effect before the Land Acquisition Officer -cum -Sub Divisional Officer, Kishangarh, District Ajmer under Sec. 20(E) of the Act of 1989, but the said objections in a very cursory manner have been overruled without any application of mind. It will be apposite here to reproduce the portion whereby objections of the petitioners have been considered by the Land Acquisition Officer, as under: - - ;