Dismissed

Land Acquisition Collector v. Bhagarathi Mali

Orissa HC8 Jan 2016LAA/26/2015

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

This court dismissed a miscellaneous case for condonation of delay and an accompanying appeal. It held that inordinate delay by the State due to official procedure is not a valid ground for condonation, citing the Supreme Court. Consequently, neither the delay justification nor the appeal on merits required consideration.

What did the court decide?

Misc. Case and appeal dismissed; awarded amount to be released within four months.

4. Mr. Mishra, learned Additional Standing Counsel for State appearing fo r the appellant submits that the delay caused in filing the appeal is due to time taken for ob servance of official procedure and the same is neither intentional nor deliberate. Mr. Mishra further submits that the cause of delay has been justified in paragraphs 3 and 4 of the petiti on for condonation of delay. Moreover, the delay caused in filing the appeal is beyond the con trol of the appellant and the same cannot be attributed to the appellant as he has no role to pay in causing delay in filing the appeal. Thus, he submits that delay should not stand on the way for disposal of the appeal on merit if the contentions raised are meritorious. It is furt her submitted that the materials available on record, more particularly oral and documentary e vidence led by the Land Acquisition Officer, have not been taken into consideration by the lea rned Civil Judge (Senior

Division), Kalahandi while adjudicating the reference. It is further submitted that th e delay in filing the appeal should be condoned on such terms as this Court deems just and pro per and the appeal should be heard on merits.

5. Mr.Acharya, learned counsel for the respondents, on the other hand, su bmits that the time consumed in filing the appeal cannot be a ground to condone the delay in v iew of judgment of the Honble Supreme Court in the case of Postmaster General and others Vs. L iving Media India Limited and another, reported in (2012) 3 SCC 563. Mr. Acharya further submi ts that when inordinate delay has been caused by the State or its instrumentalities in filing the appeal on the plea of observance off official procedure, the petition needs no considerati on. Further, the learned referral Court has discussed the materials on record in detail while arriving at conclusion which requires no interference. There is also no justifiable reason for condonation of delay. Hence, neither the misc. case for condonation nor the appeal merits con sideration. Thus, he prays for dismissal of the misc. case as well as the appeal.

6. To test the veracity of the submissions made by learned counsel for th e parties, this Court perused the impugned judgment. As it appears, the learned Trial Court t aking into consideration the oral evidence of

OPW-1 and Ext.B which reveal that the land in the vicinity sold at Rs.3,00,000/- per a cre. Further, learned Court below on a threadbare discussion of the materials available on rec ord and the judgment in the case of Zonal Officer, L.A.(O) U.I.P. Kusumkhunti Vrs. Haladhar Ma li and another, reported in 2007 (Suppl.-I) O.L.R. 646 has fixed the market value of the land in question at Rs.3,000/- per decimal. Hence, I find no reason to interfere with the impugned judgment and award. Further, inordinate delay in filing the appeal by observing official proce dure cannot be a ground for condonation of delay as laid down in by the Honble Supreme Court i n the case of Postmaster General (supra). Hence, the contentions as regards merits of the misc . case as well as the appeal merit no consideration. Accordingly, the Misc. Case as well as th e appeal stands dismissed.

The awarded amount along with interest and other statutory benefits shall be r eleased in favour of the claimants within four months from the date of production of certified copy of this order on proper identification after adjusting the amount already received by th e claimants towards compensation. ss

Land Acquisition Collector v. Bhagarathi Mali

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

Land Acquisition Collector v. Bhagarathi Mali

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

What the court decided

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