Ramanand and Others vs State of U.P. and Others

S.P. Mehrotra and Poonam Srivastava, JJ.—The petitioners are aggrieved by a notification issued u/s 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (in short "the Act") in which the provisions of Section 17(1) of the Act have also been invoked. According to the petitioners, the acquisition is contrary to the decree passed by the Civil Court, and is actuated by malafides.

Sri Ramendra Pratap Singh, learned Counsel appearing for the NOIDA (respondent No. 3) has raised a preliminary objection that the Writ Petition is premature as no declaration u/s 6 of the Act has as yet been issued.

Section 17(1) of the Act provides that the State Government may in case of urgency direct possession of the land to be taken but the said Section makes it clear that possession can be taken after 15 days from the publication of notice mentioned in Section 9(1) of the Act. Notice u/s 9(1) is issued after issuance of notification u/s 6 of the Act.

It has been held in the following cases that the Writ Petition against a notification Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act is premature:

Chakresh Sharma Sri Jagdish Prasad Sharma and Smt. Manju Sharma Vs. The State of U.P., Upper Zila Adhikari, Land Acquisition Officer and New Okhla Industrial Development Authority,

Kamal Singh Vs. State of U.P. and Others,

Judgement dated 15.9.2008 in Writ Petition No. 47907 of 2008 (Balaji Shiksha Vikas Samiti v. State of U.P. and Ors.).

It may be mentioned that in Chakresh Sharma case (Supra) while challenging the notification u/s 4(1), read with Section 17(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, the allegations of malafide were also raised. However, this Court held that the Writ Petition challenging the notification u/s 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, was premature.

In view of the above, we are of the opinion that the present Writ Petition is liable to be dismissed as premature.

Accordingly, the Writ Petition is dismissed as premature. However, it will be open to the petitioners to agitate the issue if they feel so aggrieved after declaration u/s 6 of the Act.