TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2013 (2) TMI 673
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....is appeal are : A. That, a huge area of land admeasuring 607 Bighas and 5 Biswas situate in the revenue estate of villages Durgapura, Jhalan Chod, Sanganer and Dhol-ka-Bad in District Jaipur, including the suit land measuring about 17 Bighas and 9 Biswas in village Durgapura stood notified under Section 4(1) of the Rajasthan Land Acquisition Act, 1953 (hereinafter referred to as the `Act') on 18.7.1979, for a public purpose i.e. industrial development, to be executed by the RIICO. B. The respondent society claims to have entered into an agreement to sell with the Khatedars of the suit land on 21.7.1981. C. Declaration under Section 6 of the Act was made on 22.6.1982 for the land admeasuring 591 Bighas and 17 Biswas. After meeting all requisite statutory requirements contained in the Act, possession of the land, including the land in dispute was taken by the Government and was subsequently handed over to RIICO, on 18.10.1982 and 17.11.1983. The Land Acquisition Collector assessed the market value of the land of the Khatedars, and made an award on 14.5.1984. Vide allotment letter dated 10.3.1988, RIICO, made allotment of land admeasuring 105 acres of the land, out of the total acq....
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....this Court; the transfer of land by the khatedars to the respondent society was void; the respondent society could not claim parity with other persons/societies, whose land stood released for bonafide reasons on good grounds. The High Court heard the said writ petition alongwith another writ petition that had been filed by the Company, which will be dealt with separately. During the pendency of the writ petition, certain other developments took place, that is, the allotment of land made in favour of the Company, was cancelled by the appellant vide order dated 1.10.1996, and possession of the same was taken over from it on 3.10.1996. G. The Division Bench of the High Court allowed the said writ petition vide judgment and order dated 30.7.2002, thereby releasing land admeasuring 17 Bighas and 9 Biswas in favour of the respondent society. Hence, this appeal. 3. Shri Dhruv Mehta, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant-RIICO, and Shri Manish Singhvi, learned Additional Advocate General for the State of Rajasthan, have submitted that challenge to the acquisition proceedings emanating from the Section 4 Notification dated 18.7.1979 had attained finality upto this C....
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....ndent society had therefore, been discriminated against, by the State authorities. The respondent-society is entitled for the relief on the basis of the Government Orders, (hereinafter referred to as G.Os.) provided for release of the land of Group Housing Societies, if under acquisition. Technical issue must not be entertained by this Court, as the second writ petition has been filed under the liberty granted by this Court. Thus, the present appeals lack merit and are liable to be dismissed. 5. Mr. P.S. Patwalia, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the Company, respondent no. 37, has submitted that the High Court has directed to release the land in favour of the respondent - society, from the land which was allotted to the Company, and that Company has no objection to the order passed by the High Court, releasing a particular piece of land in favour of the society. Thus, the appeals are liable to be dismissed. 6. We have considered the rival submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties and perused the records. It is a settled legal proposition that acquisition proceedings cannot be challenged at a belated stage. In the instant case, the earlier writ petitio....
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....valid; null; worthless; sipher; useless and ineffectual and may be ignored even in collateral proceeding as if it never were. The word "void" is used in the sense of incapable of ratification. A thing which is found non-est and not required to be set aside though, it is sometimes convenient to do so. There would be no need for an order to quash it. It would be automatically null and void without more ado. The continuation orders would be nullities too, because no one can continue a nullity. (Vide: Behram Khurshid Pesikaka v. State of Bombay, AIR 1955 SC 123; Pankaj Mehra & Anr. v. State of Maharashtra & Ors., AIR 2000 SC 1953; Dhurandhar Prasad Singh v. Jai Prakash University & Ors., AIR 2001 SC 2552; and Government of Orissa v. Ashok Transport Agency & Ors., (2002) 9 SCC 28). 12. Even if the lands of other similarly situated persons has been released, the society must satisfy the court that it is similarly situated in all respects, and has an independent right to get the land released. Article 14 of the Constitution does not envisage negative equality, and it cannot be used to perpetuate any illegality. The doctrine of discrimination based upon the existence of an enforceable ri....
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....actions by authorities, get away with the benefit, while others who are not fortunate to have "connections" or "money power" suffer. But these are not the grounds for courts to enforce negative equality and perpetuate the illegality" (Emphasis added) 14. The Respondent society claims to have applied before the Jaipur Development Authority (hereinafter referred to as the 'JDA') and deposited requisite charges etc. for regularisation of their proposed scheme as per G.Os. issued by the State Government, also for providing relief to the societies that had no construction on the land which belonged to them, on the date of initiation of acquisition proceedings. However, there is nothing on record to show that the society had ever applied for release of the said land before the Competent Authority i.e. Secretary to the Department of Industries, Rajasthan, who had initiated the acquisition proceedings under the Act. Furthermore, the society is not in a position to show that the societies whose lands stood released, were similarly situated to itself in all respects, i.e., such Societies had no title over the land, and had in fact, entered into an agreement to sell subsequent to the issuan....
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.... the court must exercise discretion, taking into consideration a wide variety of circumstances, inter-alia, the facts of the case, the exigency that warrants such exercise of discretion, the consequences of grant or refusal of the writ, and the nature and extent of injury that is likely to ensue by such grant or refusal. Hence, discretion must be exercised by the court on grounds of public policy, public interest and public good. The writ is equitable in nature and thus, its issuance is governed by equitable principles. Refusal of relief must be for reasons which would lead to injustice. The prime consideration for issuance of the writ is, whether or not substantial justice will be promoted. Furthermore, while granting such a writ, the court must make every effort to ensure from the averments of the writ petition, whether proper pleadings are being made. Further in order to maintain the writ of mandamus, the first and foremost requirement is that, the petition must not be frivolous and it is filed in good faith. Additionally, the applicant must make a demand which is clear, plain and unambiguous. It must be made to an officer having the requisite authority to perform the act dema....
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....ate of Mysore and Ors. etc., AIR 1966 SC 1942; Sant Ram Sharma v. State of Rajasthan & Ors., AIR 1967 SC 1910; Secretary, State of Karnataka & Ors. v. Umadevi & Ors., AIR 2006 SC 1806; and Mahadeo Bhau Khilare (Mane) & Ors. v. State of Maharashtra & Ors., (2007) 5 SCC 524). 20. During the hearing of the case if it is pointed out to the court that the party has raised the grievance before the statutory/appropriate authority and the authority has not decided the same, it is always warranted that the court may direct the said authority to decide the representation within a stipulated time by a reasoned order. However, it is not desirable that the court take upon itself the task of the statutory authority and pass an order. (Vide: G. Veerappa Pillai v. Raman and Raman Ltd. & Ors., AIR 1952 SC 192; Life Insurance Corporation of India v. Mrs. Asha Ramchandra Ambedkar & Anr., AIR 1994 SC 2148; H.P. Public Service Commission v. Mukesh Thakur & Anr., AIR 2010 SC 2620; and Manohar Lal (D) by Lrs. v. Ugrasen (D) by Lrs. & Ors., JT 2011 (12) SC 41). 21. The instant case, requires to be examined in the light of aforesaid settled legal propositions. The material on record revealed, that after....
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....lease of the land. The object and purpose of issuing such circulars could be to regularise the construction of residential houses where the land was sought to be acquired for residential purposes. Various states have issued circulars to meet such a situation. However, such a construction should be in consonance with the development scheme, or may be compatible with certain modification. Even in absence of such schemes, this Court has dealt with the issue and held that where the land is acquired for establishing residential, commercial, or industrial area and the application for release of the land reveal that the land has been used for the same purpose, the Government may release the land, if its existence does not by any means hinder development as per the notification for acquisition. (Vide : Union of India & Anr. v. Bal Ram Singh & Anr., 1992 Suppl (2) SCC 136; Sube Singh & Ors. v. State of Haryana & Ors., (2001) 7 SCC 545; Jagdish Chand & Anr. v. State of Haryana & Anr., (2005) 10 SCC 162; and Dharam Pal v. State of Haryana & Ors., (2009) 2 SCC 397). In the instant case land has been acquired for industrial development. The respondent-society wants the said land for developin....
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....of any provision of the Constitution of India including Article 14. It also did not disclose any comparable cases, where land belonging to persons/institutions who were similarly situated to itself, stood released. The said telegram reads as under: "Only our land Khasra Nos. 226 to 230 at village Durgapura without notice to us or Khatedar was ex-parte acquired under award dated 14.5.84 leaving all others land of Durgapura notified earlier. Perpetrating discrimination despite contrary directions by J.D.A. under Chairmanship of Chief Minister - 105 acre including our land was fraudulently and in abuse of power were allotted by RIICO to Diamond and Gem Development Corporation (DGDC) in a biggest land scandal with collusive acts of officials of RIICO. The said DGDC is in big way encroaching on our land despite the knowledge and notice of order dated 9.9.92 in SLP No. 165, 67-69/90 - Banwarilal and Or. v. State of Rajasthan & Ors. Kindly quash allotment of 105 acre land to DGDC and return land Khasra Nos. 226 to 230 or equivalent land to us within seven days and meanwhile stop all encroachment on our land failing which filing writ petitions in Hon'ble High Court pursuant to Supreme Co....
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....ases, small pieces of land measuring 6 bighas 2 biswas, and 2 bighas and 4 biswas were also released, for the reason that construction existed on some of this land and the other piece of land was found to be entirely land-locked, with no passage to access it. 27. A large number of issues were agitated before the High Court, however, the High Court did not deal with any of those. The Court allowed the petition merely observing: "The petitioner Subhash Sindhi Cooperative Housing Society is contesting only for a limited piece of land measuring 17 Bighas 9 Biswas which had been acquired and given to DGDC by the RIICO. The case of the society is that in view of the observations made by the Supreme Court in its order, it has pleaded its case in this petition on the basis that the other land which had been acquired had been released or it stood de facto released and the government was itself a party to it in releasing the acquired land and large number of lands of this nature de facto stood released from acquisition inasmuch as houses have been constructed thereon; the Government itself has acquiesced with such construction and has also taken steps for regularisation of such constructi....
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....ng 17 Bighas 9 Biswas from the balance land of 86 Bighas 18 Biswas, the remaining land measures 69 Bighas 9 Biswas and this is the land of which although possession was taken during the acquisition proceedings somewhere in 1982-83 yet on submission of the scheme plans by various Cooperative Housing Societies much after taking of the possession plans were approved in compliance of various orders issued by the Government of Rajasthan after 1986. - Compensation to the recorded khatedars of the land was also paid in terms of the award dated 14.5.1984 and the amount was duly received by the khatedars/persons having interest in the land. 29. The High Court herein above, has observed that land admeasuring 69 Bighas 9 Biswas of which possession had been taken in acquisition proceedings, stood released in favour of various group housing societies in view of the G.Os. issued after 1986, on extraneous considerations. Such observation is not based on any material whatsoever. Learned counsel appearing for the society could not point out any document on record, on the basis of which such an observation could be made. Same remained the position when the High Court held, that it was evident fro....
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....ned as where the writ petition is maintainable. (See: Sri Nasiruddin v. State Transport Appellate Tribunal, AIR 1976 SC 331; U.P. Rashtriya Chini Mill Adhikari Parishad, Lucknow, v. State of U.P. & Ors., AIR 1995 SC 2148; Rajasthan High Court Advocates Association v. Union of India & Ors., AIR 2001 SC 416; and Dr. Manju Verma v. State of U.P. & Ors., (2005) 1 SCC 73). 32. In the instant case, the government itself labeled the sale deeds, executed after issuance of Section 4 Notification as Void, we fail to understand as for what reasons the State authorities could think to regularise such orders. The right to administer, cannot obviously include the right to maladminister. Thus, we find no words to express anguish as what kind of governance it had been. (Vide: In Re: The Kerala Education Bill, 1957, AIR 1958 SC 956; All Bihar Christian Schools Association & Anr. v. State of Bihar & Ors., AIR 1988 SC 305; Sindhi Education Society & Anr. v. The Chief Secretary, Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Ors., (2010) 8 SCC 49; and State of Gujarat & Anr. v. Hon'ble Mr. Justice R.A. Mehra (Retd.) & Ors., JT 2013 (1) SC 276). 33. In view of the above discussion, we reach the following inescapable conclu....