Gurjail Singh and Others vs Land Acquisition Collector, Notified Area Committee

N.K. Kapoor, J.—This petition has been filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India read with Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act making a prayer that the Land Acquisition Collector be directed to send the reference to the Civil Court at Chandigarh for adjudication.

Briefly put, the house of the petitioner was acquired by the Land Acquisition Collector. Notices under Sections 9 and 10 of the Land Acquisition Act though issued by the Land Acquisition Collector were not received by the petitioner and so he was not represented before the Collector when the award was made. According to the petitioner, the amount of compensation awarded by the Land Acquisition Collector is too little and deserves to be enhanced.

Notice was issued to the respondent who despite service did not turn up today.

The sole prayer made by the petitioner is that his application u/s 18 of the Land Acquisition Act for reference to be made to the District Judge is pending for the last more than two years. Admittedly, the Collector has got no jurisdiction to decide on the merits of reference This way there is no option with the Collector but to refer the matter u/s 18 of the Land Acquisition Act to the Court of District Judge.

In the circumstances, the revision petition merits acceptance and is accordingly allowed. The Collector is directed to make reference u/s 18 of the Land Acquisition Act to the District Judge, concerned within two months from today. ''It will be for the District Judge to decide all the objections including the competency of the reference, if any. No costs.