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2015 (1) TMI 1449
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.... The appellants are original residents and have their houses along with their land in village-Sohana, Tehsil Mohali in District Roop Nagar (Punjab). The State of Punjab has framed a special Act known as 'The Punjab Regional and Town Planning and Development Act, 1995' (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act of 1995') to construct a residential urban estate with the main object to undertake urban development and housing programme. On 21.02.2000, the State of Punjab through Secretary, Punjab Housing and Development, the respondent No.1 herein, issued notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short 'the L.A. Act') for the purpose of setting up a residential urban estate in the area of revenue estate of village Mauli Baidwan, SAS Nagar (Mohali). The said acquisition notification covered a total extent of 1264.84 acres of land in four villages -Mauli Baidwan, Sohana, Raipur Khurd and Lakhnausr in Roopnagar district of Punjab out of which the land of the appellants in the present batch of appeals constituted 102 acres of land in small pockets of the said 1264.84 acres. Objections were raised against the same by the appellants under Se....
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....(2) of the Act of 2013. 6. It has been further contended that the then Additional Chief Administrator- cum-Land Acquisition Collector, GMADA, Mohali in his affidavit dated 06.02.2008 has admitted that the possession of the land in question is with the appellants. Further, in the affidavit dated 19.07.2012 filed on behalf of respondent no.2, it has been categorically stated that the appellants and other land owners are using their land for agricultural purposes. For the said reason, the respondent-GMADA had filed an application dated 09.02.2012 seeking permission to complete the remaining development works in Sectors 76-80 of SAS Nagar, Mohali. The said application was dismissed by this Court on 11.11.2013. 7. Further, it is contended by the appellants that no details/calculation of the awarded money has been given to the appellants. Even if payments have been deposited, the same is no payment in the eyes of law and the respondent State has never offered to pay compensation of the acquired land in terms of the award of the appellants. No notice, whatsoever, has been received by the appellants from any quarter asking them to collect the compensation awarded in respect of their ....
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....2013. 11. Further, it is contended that the acquisition proceedings in relation to the land involved in the present appeals are a part of 1264.84 acres of land acquired pursuant to the notification dated 21.02.2000 and the compensation has already been paid/deposited in Court in case of the affected land holders and physical possession of the land has been taken with regard to more than 90% of the acquired land except the land covered by the present appeals where physical possession of the land could not be taken as the stay orders passed by the High Court & this Court have been in force. It is further contended that, however, soon after the passing of the impugned judgment dated 19.04.2011 the possession of the land was taken 28.4.2011. Reliance was placed on the decision of this Court in the case of Sita Ram Bhandar Society, New Delhi v. Lt. Governor, Govt. of N.C.T., Delhi & Ors.[(2009) 10 SCC 501], in justification of the above legal contentions, the relevant paragraph of which is extracted hereunder:- "30. It would, thus, be seen from a cumulative reading of the aforesaid judgments, that while taking possession of a large area of land with a large number of owners,....
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....ession of the acquired land when the L.A. Act was in force. Further, reliance was placed on New India Assurance Co. Ltd. v. Nusli Neville Wadia & Anr.[(2008) 3 SCC 279] and Ashok Lanka & Anr. v. Rishi Dixit & Ors.[(2005) 5 SCC 598] that legislature is known to avoid anomaly or absurdity. 13. It is further contended that the settled principle of law based upon the legal maxim 'Actus Curiae Neminem Gravabit' that has also been given statutory flavour in terms of Section 144 of the Civil Procedure Code (Restitution) must be read into Section 24(2) of the Act of 2013 in conjunction with Section 6 of the General Clauses Act and Section 11(A) of the L.A. Act. 14. The learned Attorney General has further submitted that the judgment of this Court in Sree Balaji Nagar Residential Association v. State of Tamil Nadu[2014 (10) SCALE 388] is per incuriam in as much as the above crucial legal aspects have not been considered therein. Further, he has placed reliance upon the case of Nand Kishore Gupta & Ors. v. State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors.[(2010) 10 SCC 282] this Court held thus:- "46.The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants could not deny the fact that th....
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.... above has been interpreted by the three Judge Bench of this Court in the case of Pune Municipal Corporation (supra), the relevant paras 20 and 21 from the case are extracted hereunder:- "20......it is clear that the award pertaining to the subject land has been made by the Special Land Acquisition Officer more than five years prior to the commencement of the 2013 Act. It is also admitted position that compensation so awarded has neither been paid to the landowners/persons interested nor deposited in the court. The deposit of compensation amount in the Government treasury is of no avail and cannot be held to be equivalent to compensation paid to the landowners/persons interested. We have, therefore, no hesitation in holding that the subject land acquisition proceedings shall be deemed to have lapsed under Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act. 21. The argument on behalf of the Corporation that the subject land acquisition proceedings have been concluded in all respects under the 1894 Act and that they are not affected at all in view of Section 114(2) of the 2013 Act, has no merit at all, and is noted to be rejected. Section 114(1) of the 2013 Act repeals the 1894 Act. Sub....
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....pted by us as the said principle of law laid down by this Court in the above referred case has no application to the fact situation on hand in view of the clear statement of law laid down by this Court in the above referred cases after interpreting the provisions of the Act of 2013 and therefore, the reliance placed upon the said decision is misplaced. 18. In Sree Balaji Nagar Residential Association (supra), it was opined that after adverting to the decisions of the Privy Council and this Court, that Section 24(2) of the Act of 2013 does not exclude any period during which the land acquisition proceedings might have remained stayed on account of stay or injunction or "status quo" order regarding possession of the land granted by any court. It was conclusively held that the Legislature has consciously omitted to extend the period of five years indicated in Section 24(2) of the Act of 2013, even if the proceedings had been delayed on account of an order of stay or injunction granted by a court of law or for any reason. 19. Further, so far as the judgment cited by the respondents in Civil Appeal No.331 of 2014, we are of the view that the same has no application on the facts of....
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....that in computing the period referred to in this sub- section, any period or periods during which the proceedings for acquisition of the land were held up on account of any stay or injunction issued by any stay or injunction issued by any court or the period specified in the award of a Tribunal for taking possession or such period where possession has been taken but the compensation lying deposited in a court or in any account maintained for this purpose shall be excluded." The above said amendment has come into force w.e.f. 01.01.2015. With due regard to the same, we are of the view that the amendment would not be applicable to the case on hand for the reason that these appeals were pending much prior to the ordinance and also the applications under Section 24(2) of the Act of 2013 were filed prior to the amendment to Section 24(2) by Ordinance and the same were heard and reserved for orders on 28.10.2014 and therefore the Ordinance in so far as insertion of proviso to the above Section by way of an amendment is prospective. Further, keeping in mind the principles laid down by this Court in the case of Garikapati Veeraya v. N. Subbiah Choudhry and Ors.[AIR 1957 SC 540], wherein....
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.... act and its retrospective option as follows: '(i)A statute which affects substantive rights is presumed to be prospective in operation unless made retrospective, either expressly or by necessary intendment, whereas a statute which merely affects procedure, unless such as construction is textually impossible, is presumed to be retrospective in its application, should not be given an extended meaning and should be strictly confined to its clearly defined limits. (ii) Law relating to forum and limitation is procedural in nature, whereas law relating to right of action and right of appeal even though remedial is substantive in nature. (iii) Every litigant has a vested right in substantive law but no such right exists in procedural law. (iv) a procedural statute should not generally speaking be applied retrospective where the result would be to create new disabilities or obligations or to impose new duties in respect of of transactions already accomplished. (v) a statute which not only changes the procedure but also creates new rights and liabilities shall be construed to be prospective in operation unless otherwise provided, either expr....