Jaswant Singh vs State Of Punjab & Ors.

PANKAJ JAIN, J. (ORAL)

Petitioner has approached this Court under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of writ in the nature of certiorari quashing notice of demand letters (Annexures P-4 to P-6).

The land of the petitioner was acquired prior to the year 2000. As per the petitioner, he was shocked to receive demand letter dated 28.09.2021 from respondent No.3 alleging that an excess amount of Rs.1,10,000/- was paid to the petitioner on account of compensation way back in the year 2001. Relying upon the calculation made by respondent No.2, the petitioner deposited an amount of Rs.1,10,873/-. Petitioner submits that respondents No.3 to 4 further demanded interest @ 15% on the excess amount of Rs.1,10,000/- from the petitioner for the period commencing from 22.11.2001 till 02.09.2022 and threatened to recover the same as arrears of land revenue vide letter (Annexure P-4).

Vide communications dated 24.04.2023 and 11.05.2023, placed on record as Annexures P-5 & P-6 respectively, the respondent No.4 raised demand of Rs.3,55,248/- on account of excess payment of compensation.

Petitioner by way of present writ petition impugns the action of the respondents from making recovery of interest.

Counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is an illiterate land owner whose land was compulsorily acquired by the State. The compensation was paid by the State. At no point of time, the petitioner misrepresented with regard to area of his land or the rate at which compensation for acquisition was to be paid. Once the respondents brought to the notice of the petitioner the fact regarding excess payment, the petitioner without any delay made the same good, yet the respondents have initiated recovery qua interest, that too for 21 years. He relies upon judgments of Supreme Court in the matters of Ravinder Kumar Goel vs. The State of Haryana and others, 2023(2) R.C.R.(Civil) 101 and Hukam Singh Etc. vs. State of Haryana and another, 2019(13) SCC 123 to submit that excess payment if any made to the land owner, is required to be paid back but without any interest.

Per contra, the Ld. State counsel submits that for 21 years the petitioner has utilized excess amount of Rs.1,10,873/- and thus, he is liable to pay interest @ 15% per annum.

I have heard counsel for the parties and have carefully gone through records of the case.

Facts are not much in dispute. Land of the petitioner was acquired prior to the year 2000. He was paid compensation in the year 2001. For the first time, the respondents vide communication dated 28.09.2021 informed the petitioner of payment of excess compensation to the tune of Rs.1,10,000/-. Admittedly, the petitioner paid the amount vide challan form dated 12.08.2022. Even as per communication (Annexure P-1), the recovery of excess amount of Rs.1,10,873/- was contemplated without any interest. The said amount was deposited by the petitioner on 29.07.2022 after the respondents supplied details on 27.07.2022. There is no allegation against the petitioner of having misrepresented regarding area of land or the rate of compensation.

In view thereof, this Court finds that once excess compensation was paid by respondents without there being any fault on the part of petitioner and the same was returned by the petitioner the day after the respondents supplied account details, he cannot be saddled with interest.

Resultantly, the present writ petition is allowed. Impugned demand notices are hereby set aside.

All pending miscellaneous application(s), if any, stands disposed off.