Petitioners sought compensation for land acquired in 1960. The Court dismissed the petition due to an unexplained delay of 57 years and the unavailability of departmental records to verify payment to the father.
Prayer for award of compensation was dismissed due to laches and lack of records.
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HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN BENCH AT JAIPUR
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 23208 / 2017
(2 of 4)
[CW-23208/2017]
----Petitioners
Versus
----Respondents
For Petitioner(s) : Mr. Arvind Kumar Pareek For Respondent(s) :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE M.N.BHANDARI
(3 of 4)
[CW-23208/2017]
Order
07/02/2018
By this writ petition, a direction is sought for payment of compensation arising out of the acquisition of the land.
It is stated that a land belonging to the petitioner’s father was acquired in the year 1960 but compensation thereupon was not paid thus the writ petition has been filed limited to the prayer for award of compensation. A reference of Annexure-6 has been given to show that the Land Acquisition Officer called the petitioner’s father along with the documents but thereupon compensation was not paid thus the petitioner approached the respondents. It is however stated that no record is available. The petitioner is an illiterate person and is not in possession of the record rather the record is with the respondents. Hence, the prayer made in the writ petition may be granted.
I have considered submissions of learned counsel and find that the writ petition has been filed to seek compensation after lapse of fifty seven years. The allegation has been made about non-payment of compensation. If the documents at Annexure-6 is looked into, Shyochna was called along with the documents for the needful. The payment may have been made to the petitioner’s father thereupon and, in that case, the payment of compensation cannot be directed again. To verify the facts, record of the case is necessary but is not available with the Department due to the intervening period of more than fifty seven years.
(4 of 4)
[CW-23208/2017]
In view of the above, I do not find that a case is made out for grant of relief unless it is confirmed that compensation was not paid. Ihe intervening period is of fifty seven years and record is not available with the Department, thus prayer cannot be granted. The writ petition suffers from unexplained delay thus hit by latches. It is, accordingly, dismissed.
(M.N.BHANDARI) J.
sunita/62
2 issues framed by the court
Whether a case for grant of compensation for land acquired 57 years ago can be established without records due to laches.
Whether the writ petition is maintainable when records are unavailable after a long lapse of time.
Ram Narayan
Babulal
Om Prakash
Prabhati
Raju
Sharda
M.N. Bhandari
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
