Konduru Rajavardhana Raju vs The Special Deputy Collector La
2021 Latest Caselaw 266 AP

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          HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE NINALA JAYASURYA

                  WRIT PETITION No.22567 of 2020


ORDER: (Heard and pronounced through Blue Jeans App (Virtual) mode, since
this mode is adopted on account of prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic)

       Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and learned Assistant

Government Pleader for Land Acquisition. With their consent, the writ

petition is being disposed of at the stage of admission.


       The grievance of the petitioners in the present writ petition is that

the respondents have not taken any steps to deposit/pay the enhanced

compensation amounts in respect of the trees in the lands acquired from

the petitioners and that the same is illegal, void, arbitrary, unconstitutional

and violative of rights of the petitioners guaranteed under Articles 14, 21

and 300-A of Constitution of India and therefore seek a direction to the

respondents to deposit/pay the compensation to the petitioners. The

petitioners' lands along with trees in different extents as mentioned in the

affidavit filed in support of the writ petition were acquired for the

construction of Kandaleru Reservoir under Telugu Ganga Project pursuant

to notification dated 01.02.1996 issued by respondents. The Land

Acquisition Officer passed an Award on 15.10.1997 and on a reference in

L.A.O.P.No.67 of 2005, a judgment was passed on 25.02.2009 enhancing

the compensation. Against the same, the respondents carried the matter

by way of an appeal to the Hon'ble Common High Court at Hyderabad in

L.A.A.S.No.304 of 2017 and the petitioners filed cross objections and a

Division Bench of the Hon'ble High Court by a common judgment dated

13.10.2017 dismissed the State appeals and allowed the cross objections.

The State aggrieved by the said enhancement, carried the matter by way of

a Special Leave petition vide SLP(Civil) Diary No.21072 of 2018 and the

Hon'ble Supreme Court dismissed the said SLP filed by the State on

27.07.2018. Thus the quantum of compensation payable to the petitioners

has been confirmed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Despite the said

position, the compensation has not been deposited to the petitioners till

today.

The learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the respondents

even after lapse of more than two years failed to deposit/pay compensation

to the petitioners which has attained finality by virtue of the order of

Hon'ble Apex Court. He states that the petitioners are discriminated in as

much as some of the claimants whose lands/trees were acquired along with

the petitioners' lands have been paid compensation, however due to

reasons not known to the petitioners, they were not paid compensation so

far. The learned counsel states that due to discrimination as well as non

payment of the compensation, the petitioners are seriously prejudiced and

under those circumstances, the petitioners are constrained to approach this

Court.

The learned Assistant Government Pleader for Land Acquisition on

instructions submits that the proposals for payment of compensation are in

process, but the same would take some considerable time to finalise the

same. Accordingly, he seeks Four months time for making/depositing the

amounts towards the compensation.

Considered the submissions made by both the parties. This is a

matter where the petitioners' lands along with trees were acquired in the

year 1996 and the compensation has not been paid even after the matter

has attained finality in the year 2018 by virtue of the orders passed by the

Hon'ble Supreme Court of India. The petitioners are entitled for the lawful

compensation as determined by the Courts of Law and they cannot be

deprived of fruits of the order due to undue delays. In the present case,

the dispute with regard to determination of compensation is put to quietus

in view of the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court and in such

circumstances, the respondents have no other alternative, except to

deposit/pay the compensation due and payable to the petitioners. Though

this Court is not inclined to go into the aspects of the discrimination,

however finds justification in the submissions made by the learned counsel

for the petitioners that the petitioners are deprived of enjoying the fruits of

the orders passed in their favour due to delay on the part of the

respondents. Under the said circumstances, the respondents are directed to

deposit/pay the compensation in respect of the trees in the lands acquired

from the petitioners, within a period of four (4) weeks from the date of

receipt of copy of the order.

Accordingly, the Writ Petition is disposed of. There shall be no order

as to costs.

As a sequel, all the pending miscellaneous applications, if any, shall

stand closed.

______________________ NINALA JAYASURYA, J

Date: 21.01.2021 BLV

HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE NINALA JAYASURYA

WRIT PETITION No.22567 of 2020 Dt: 21.01.2021

BLV