Manoj Kumar Singh and Another vs The State of Bihar and Others

The Letters Patent Appeal suffers from delay of thirty two days. For condonation thereof, an application (I.A. No. 4400/2008) has been made. Even if we condone the delay in filing the appeal, in our considered view, the appeal does not have any merit and it does not deserve to be admitted. That Section 17(4) of the Land Acquisition Act was invoked for acquisition of land belonging to the appellants as the said land was required for construction of a military base camp for the safety and surveillance of the Indo Nepal Border and, accordingly, inquiry u/s 5A was dispensed with, is not in dispute. The declaration u/s 6 by invoking Section 17(4) was made on 14.11.2006.

The ground set up by the petitioners before the Single Judge has not been canvassed before us. What has been contended before us is that for about one and half years, the possession of the land having not been taken from the appellants, the appellants, at least, may be permitted to apply to the State Government for de-acquisition of the land to the extent of two and half acres.

The submission of the senior counsel before us shows that the appellants do not have any grievance with regard to legality and correctness of the acquisition proceedings. What they want is de-acquisition of the part of the land. If the possession of the acquired land has not been taken so far by the State Government, it is always open to the appellants to apply to the State Government for de-acquisition of the part of the land. Obviously, as and when such application is made, the State Government would consider the same in accord with law.

With the aforesaid observations, the Letters Patent Appeal is disposed of. This disposes of I.A. No. 4400 of 2008 as well.