3.The Land Acquisition Tribunal has no jurisdiction to entertain a reference under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act (Central Act) when the land is acquired under the Tamil Nadu Acquisition of Land for Harijan Welfare Scheme Act, 1978. As per the State Act, any person who does not agree to the amount determined by the prescribed authority under Sub Section (ii) of Section 7 of the Act, may prefer an appeal to the Court within a period of limitation prescribed. In the present case, no appeal has been filed within the time. However, the matter was entertained as a reference by invoking Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act (Central Act). The State Act is a complete Code by itself and the provisions that the State Act had already been upheld by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in State of Tamil Nadu and others vs. Ananthi Ammal reported in AIR 1995 SC 1554. The appeal under Section 7 of the State Act is entirely different from reference under Section 18 of the Central Act. It has also been held by this Court that in case of an appeal under Section 9, Court fee is payable under Section 51 of the Tamil Nadu Court Fees Act. In such circumstances, this Court is unable to sustain the order of the Land Acquisition Tribunal which has no jurisdiction to entertain this matter as a reference under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act (Central Act). However, the respondent should be given liberty to prosecute his case further in accordance with the provisions of the Tamil Nadu State Act. Hence, this appeal is allowed and the order of the Land Acquisition Tribunal in L.A.O.P.No.1 of 2003 dated 09.12.2009 is set aside. However, liberty of the claimant / respondent to file regular appeal under Section 9 of the Tamil Nadu Acquisition of Land for Harijan Welfare Scheme Act, 1978 is preserved. The time that is taken from the date of reference till the date of this judgment may be excluded for the purpose of calculating limitation while filing a regular appeal under Section 9 of the State Act. No costs. Consequently, the connected miscellaneous petition is closed.
