Nagnath Kaley vs The Special Land Acquisition Officer, N.I.T., Nagpur and others

N.J. Pandya, J.—All that the petitioner wants is that the Land Acquisition Officer, having come up to the stage of section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short the Act) and having decided to drop the proceedings for whatever reasons, should have also carried out the exercise of determining the compensation as per sub-section (2) of section 48 of the said Act.

Land bearing Survey No. 108 of city of Nagpur, area approximately admeasuring 34 acres, was sought to be acquired for which notification u/s 4 of the Act came to he issued on 3-5-1962. This was followed by the usual enquiry and Notification u/s 6 of the Act was issued on 29-9-1985.

No doubt, in the mean time, drastic changes were introduced so far as urban properties are concerned by the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 and the right to hold property was curtailed to a great extent.

However, so far as the right available to the owner of the land u/s 48 of the Act is concerned, there cannot be any impact on the said Ceiling Act inspite of there being section 42 and code thereunder. Section 42 gives over riding effect to the provisions of Ceiling Act but it can have no bearing on the right given to the owner of the land who had to prosecute the acquisition proceedings till they were dropped, for which section 48 has been specifically enacted. The proceedings were not dropped because of the Ceiling Act but independent of it under the Land Acquisition Act.

The claim of the petitioner, therefore, has to be accepted. The respondents through its Collector and the concerned Land Acquisition Officer are directed to enquire into the amount of compensation as contemplated by section 48 of the Act, particularly with reference to sub-section (2) thereof, by giving reasonable opportunity to the petitioner for the purpose. As the matter is very old, the respondents are directed to enter into the enquiry within two weeks from today and complete the same as expeditiously as possible preferably within six months from the date of receipt of the writ of this case. Writ be sent forthwith. Petition disposed of.