Jharkhand High Court
Ashish Kumar Bhol & Ors vs The State Of Jharkhand & Ors on 20 November, 2021
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI
[Civil Writ Jurisdiction]
W.P.(C) No. 5456 of 2009
Ashish Kumar Bhol & Ors. .... .. ... Petitioners
Versus
The State of Jharkhand & Ors. .. ... ... Respondents
...........
CORAM :HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KAILASH PRASAD DEO
(Through :- Video Conferencing)
.........
For the Petitioners : Mr. A.K. Sahani, Advocate.
For the Respondent-State : Mr. P.C. Roy, SC (L&C)-1
......
06/ 20.11.2021.
Learned counsel, Mr. A.K. Sahani has submitted that petitioners, namely,
1.Ashish Kumar Bhol, 2, Subal Chandra Ghosh, 3.Tara Pado Bondya, 4, Ashok
Kumar Patra, 5. Bhabani Shankar Nayak and 6. Amal Kanti Ghosh have preferred the
writ petition on 24.11.2009 for a direction upon the respondent no.2 i.e. Deputy
Commissioner, East Singhbhum, Jamshedpur to consider and dispose of the
application filed by the petitioners under the provision of Section 18 of the Land
Acquisition Act for enhancement of the compensation.
Learned counsel for the petitioners has submitted that the lands of Village-
Kalia within Bahragora Block/ Anchal in the District of East Singhbhum were
acquired for Sawarnrekha Multipultipurpose Project vide land Acquisition Case No.9
of 2007-08 showing acquisition of piece of land measuring an area of 9.98 acres of
Village- Kalia, pursuant to the notification dated 15.12.2008 and thereafter the similar
notice has been issued and the petitioners have filed an application under Section 18
of the Land Acquisition Act before the Collector to make reference to the competent
court of law, but till date the same has not been done though the counter-affidavit has
been filed on 27.04.2011 by Dileshwar Mahto, S/o Choudhary Mahto, the then
Special Land Acquisition Officer-I, Swarnrekha Project Mango JSR and on
08.11.2019, supplementary counter-affidavit has been filed by Mr. Nand Kishore
Gupta, S/o Late Kedar Prasad Gupta, the then Special Land Acquisition Officer-I, but
instead of referring the matter before the competent Civil Court under Section 18 of
the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 and in view of the judgment passed by the Apex
Court in the case of Doctor G.H. Grant vs. State of Bihar, reported in AIR 1966 SC
237, because of which the matter is pending before this Court.
Learned counsel for the respondent-State, Mr. P.C. Roy has submitted that
counter-affidavit has been filed. Since the matter was pending before this Court, as
such, it is not known to him, why the Special Land Acquisition Officer has not
referred the matter before the competent Civil Court for adjudication in case
application has been filed under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act.
Learned counsel for the State, Mr. P.C. Roy has submitted that para 11 of the
supplementary counter-affidavit dated 08.11.2019 may profitably be quoted
hereunder:-
"11. That it is humbly stated and submitted that the petitioner Ashis Kumar Bhol,
alongwith eleven (ii) awardees have not received the compensation amount due to
enlacement of rate again for their acquired land. The rest awardees of Village-
Kalia, have already received their compensation amount Rs.13,29,668=00 had
already been paid to the Awardees Amount Rs.16,25,568=00 which is more than
rate of the land. The possession of the said land was already given to the
requisition officer on 11.02.2013 Executive Engineer Baraz Division Galudih."
Learned counsel for the petitioners, Mr. A.K. Sahani has submitted that para 27
of the counter-affidavit on 27.04.2011 may profitably be quoted hereunder:-
"27. That in reply to paragraph- 21 of the writ application it is stated and
submitted that the petitioners were submitted an application on 26.08.2009 for
enhancement of rate. The claim of the petitioners is not tenable."
Learned counsel for the petitioners has thus submitted that this shows callous
attitude of the respondent-authorities in filing the affidavit.
Considering the rival submissions of the parties, in view of the judgment
passed by the Apex Court in the case of Doctor G.H. Grant (Supra) and in view of
the provisions of the Act, this Court directs the Deputy Commissioner, Jamshedpur to
pass an order within a period of two weeks from the date of production of copy of
this order through FAX.
Accordingly, the instant writ petition is hereby disposed of.
Let a copy of this order be communicated to the Chief Secretary, Government
of Jharkhand, Ranchi that whatever the interest will accrue on the enhanced amount,
if payable to the petitioners, then the State is unnecessarily burdened with such
interest because of inaction on the part of the officials in referring the matter under
Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, as such, the Chief Secretary is directed to
take action against those erring officers for whose laches, the State has to pay the cost
of interest.
Let a copy of this order be communicated through FAX to the Chief Secretary,
Government of Jharkhand as well as the Deputy Commissioner, East Singhbhum,
Jamshedpur.
(Kailash Prasad Deo, J.)
R.S.
