TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2014 (9) TMI 941
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....d under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as, 'the Act') undertaken by the Tamil Nadu State Government for the purpose of implementation of the said scheme covered by G.O. No.122 relating to the proposed canal improvement works. The actual land acquisition proceedings commenced with issuance of Notification under Section 4(1) of the Act on 02.02.2005, insofar as the lands under dispute are concerned. The Award was made on 30.11.2006 but in the meantime as appears from the facts stated in C.A. No.8700 of 2013, upon a challenge made to the Notification under Section 4(1) of the Act, the High Court stayed dispossession of the concerned land holders by order dated 17.2.2005 but ultimately the writ petitions and other tagged matters were dismissed on 27.4.2007. The matter reached this Court and as a result of an interim order passed by this Court on 18.05.2007 in C.A.No.8701 of 2013 [arising out of S.L.P.(C)No.9492 of 2007] the land holders have remained protected from being dispossessed from their lands in question. The various orders passed by this Court in these cases reveal that the matter was taken up in a much wider perspective in the light of larger issues ....
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....ners in public interest litigation as well as representatives of the land owners' Association could not prove fruitful. In the meanwhile, on account of a subsequent legislation - The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (for brevity, '2013 Act') coming into effect from 01.01.2014, through I.A. No.3 filed in Civil Appeal No.8701 of 2013, a plea was raised on behalf of the appellants that the appeals be allowed in terms of Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act by holding that the acquisition proceeding initiated under the Act has lapsed. The parties have been heard only on this narrow legal aspect to find out whether the appellants' prayer noted above deserves to be allowed in view of Section 24(2) of 2013 Act or not. In view of the order proposed, we find it futile to refer to and discuss the facts involved in different civil appeals. Section 24 of 2013 Act is as follows : "24. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, in any case of land acquisition proceedings initiated under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, - (a) where no award under section 11 of the said Land Acquisition Act has been made, then, all provi....
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.... For showing that at least in the case of some land holders, the compensation was simply deposited in the Revenue Deposit Account in the sub-treasury and not in the concerned Court, a letter of Spl. Thasildar (LA), Chennai Corporation Waterways Project, Ambattur, Chennai, dated 30.03.2007 has been annexed with I.A. No.3 of 2014 in C.A.No.8701 of 2013. In reply Mr. Subramonium Prasad, AAG for the State of Tamil Nadu has produced some charts and documents to submit that compensation has been deposited in several cases with the concerned Civil Court also and in some cases the payments have been accepted by the land owners. However, even as per the chart containing details of award and payments for 3.31 hectares of land involved in the case of Vishwanathan & Ors. in C.A. No.8701 of 2013 [arising out of S.L.P.(C) No.9492 of 2007] an amount of Rs. 26,73,851/- is shown to be lying in Revenue deposit whereas only for a small portion of land an amount of Rs. 5,50,056/- is in Civil Court deposit. However, this issue need not be pursued any further because admittedly physical possession of the land involved in these appeals has not been taken over by the State and on that account alone, the ....
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....od when the proceeding suffered stay by an order of the court, in the context of limitation provided for publishing the declaration under Section 6(1) of the Act. To a similar effect was Explanation to Section 11A which was added by Amendment Act 68 of 1984. Clearly the Legislature has, in its wisdom, made the period of five years under Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act absolute and unaffected by any delay in the proceedings on account of any order of stay by a court. The plain wordings used by the Legislature are clear and do not create any ambiguity or conflict. In such a situation, the court is not required to depart from the literal rule of interpretation. It was faintly suggested by Mr. Subramonium Prasad, learned AAG for the State of Tamil Nadu that the proviso may come to the rescue of the State and save the proceedings from suffering lapse if it is held that since there was an award leading to payment of compensation in respect of some of the land holdings only, therefore all the beneficiaries may now be entitled to compensation in accordance with the provisions of the 2013 Act. This contention could have been considered with some more seriousness if physical possession of the....