Himachal Pradesh HC: Mandatory Notice to 'Interested Persons' for Passing of Award under Land Acquisition Act

The Himachal Pradesh High Court recently passed a compensation award for land acquisition in Mangu village near Solang, seven years after the initial passing of the award.

On Tuesday, the Court ordered for the award to be referred to the Statutory Authority for determination of the compensation, as Section 12(2) of the Land Acquisition Act 1894 had not been complied with in regards to the Petitioner.

Section 18 of the LA Act provides for filing of reference petitions within a stipulated time to the Collector for determination of the Court, by any person interested who has not accepted the award. The Petitioner in this case argued that his reference petition could not be moved within the prescribed time as he was not made aware of the passing of the award as mandated under Section 12.

A bench of Chief Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice Ajay Mohan Goel noted that the Petitioner’s reference petition was rejected despite Section 64 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (read with Section 18 of the LA Act) which relaxes the period prescribed for moving Reference petition by one year.

The Respondent-Land Acquisition Collector claimed that the Petitioner was served notice of his award under Section 12 of the LA Act, however, the Court observed that there was an endorsement saying “Sir, refused to accept” which did not mention as to who refused to accept the notice, who this “Parmanand” was and who the “Sathi” was.

Therefore, the Court concluded that the notice was never served upon the Petitioner and thus, the Respondent No.2 ought to have entertained the application as he was empowered to do so in terms of the second proviso to Sub-section (2) of Section 64 of the 2013 Act.

Consequently, the Court directed the concerned Land Acquisition Collector to forward the application of the Petitioner alongwith the Reference to the Statutory Authority for adjudication of the Reference on merit.