UTTAR PRADESH SAMAJ CO OPRATIVE HOUSE BULDING SOCIETY LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Uttar Pradesh Samaj Co-operative House Building Society Ltd., New Delhi, by means of this petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India has prayed for the issuance of a writ for quashing notifications dated November 13, 1959 and March 7, 1963 under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, and those dated September 15, 1962. November 15, 1965, August 29, 1966 October 22, 1982 and September 12,1962 under section 6 of the said Act with respect to the petitioner's .land in villages Tughlakabad and Tekhand. Prayer has also been made for quashing the awards made by the Land Acquisition Collector with respect to the said land and for restraining the respondents from interfering with the possession and enjoy ment of the said land by the petitioner-society.- The respondents named in the petition are (1) Union of India through the Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, (2) the Lieut. Governor, State of Delhi, (3) The Land Acquisition collector, (4) The Deputy Housing Commissioner, Delhi Administration, (5) Collector, Delhi and (6) the Municipal Corporation, Delhi.

(2.) According to the allegations of the petitioners, it is a Co-operative House Building Society consisting of persons belonging to the State of Uttar Pradesh. The object of the Society is to establish a housing colony for its members in Delhi and to solve the housing problem for them by allotting plots ()f land in the colony to enable them to construct their houses. The society was registered on January 31, 1957 under the Bombay Co-operative Societies Act as extended to Delhi. The petitioner- society owns land measuring 425 Bighas 16 Biswas. Out of that, land measuring 420 Bighas 7 Biswas is situated .in village Tughlakabad and land measuring 5 Bighas and 9 Biswas is situated in village Tekhand. The above land was purchased by the petitioner-society from various landowners for establishing a house building society for its members. The impunged notifications under sections 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act were issued by the Delhi Administration in connection with the acquisition of vast areas of land including th.e land of the petitioner. In notification dated November 13, 1959 issued under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, the Government and evacuee land along with ome other lands were excluded from acquisition.

(3.) The petitioner-society claims that the land measuring 289 Bighas 15 Biswas oat of 425 Bighas 16 Biswas was evacuee land and as such was exempted from acquisition by notification dated November 13, 1959 Notification under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act ix further stated to be vague and indefinite and not in accordance with law. It is also averred that the notification under section 6 of the Act without prior notification under section 4 of the Act in respect of the land in question is illegal. Ground has also been taken that as the land in dispute had been purchased by the petitioner society for the purpose of constructing a housing colony, no public purpose would be served by acquiring the said land from the petitioner-society. The petitioner-society is also stated to have been discriminated against, becaucse lands belonging to housing societies similarly situated have been exempted from acquisition