Land acquisition: Belated challenge to proceedings can't be entertained, says HC

The High Court of Karnataka has said that a belated challenge to the land acquisition proceeding cannot be entertained. A division bench headed by Justice Alok Aradhe observed this while dismissing a plea challenging acquisition proceedings.

The appeal was filed by a couple, joint owners of the lands situated at Kollegal in Chamarajanagar district. Around one acre of their land was acquired for providing underground drainage facility to Kollegal town for which the preliminary notification was issued in October 2014 and final notification was issued in November 2014.

After a petition challenging the preliminary notification was rejected with a direction to the authority to consider the objections of the landowners, the Land Acquisition Officer had passed an award on November 26, 2015.

The land owners filed a fresh writ petition, challenging the acquisition proceedings, in January 2017. The single bench declined to entertain the challenge to the notification, but gave a liberty to them to submit an application before the Land Acquisition Officer with a direction to the officer to make a reference to the authority under Section 64 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. The petitioners challenged this order by filing an appeal.

The division bench said that no relief can be granted as the appellants had not assailed the award dated November 26, 2015. “It is pertinent to mention here that the writ petition was filed on or about January 20, 2017, whereas the award was passed on November 26, 2015. Though the petitioners were aware about the acquisition proceedings, yet they waited for the award to be passed and thereafter filed a writ petition after a period of one year and two months. Thus, the writ petition suffers from delay and laches,” the bench said.

Check out DH's latest videos: