Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Jan 19: The High Court has directed the Chief Secretary to take appropriate action against the Collector Land Acquisition for not depositing the awarded amount in lieu of acquiring land before the Court.
Justice Sanjeev Kumar while dismissing the petition of State challenging various orders passed by the Principal District Judge Anantnag (reference Court), directed appropriate action against the Collector Land Acquisition for his failure to deposit the amount before the reference court.
“Let a copy of this order be placed before the Chief Secretary of the State, who will take appropriate decision with regard to launching of appropriate proceedings against the then Collector on account of whose failure the amount was not deposited in the court”, Justice Kumar directed and found the petition without any merit.
“In that view of the matter, it would be in the fitness of things to direct the petitioner to first deposit the statutory interest in terms of Section 35 which has accrued on the award amount from 27th January, 1999 till 23rd February, 2013 in the reference Court”, the Court directed.
Court further kept it open to the State to recover the same from the concerned Collector, who had failed to follow the mandate of Section 32 of the Act by launching appropriate proceedings. “The decision in this regard is, however, left for the Chief Secretary of the State to take”, read the judgment.
In pursuant to the indent placed by Directorate of Fire Services, Srinagar, for acquisition of land for construction of District Fire Complex at Anantnag, and accordingly the Collector Land Acquisition initiated proceedings for acquisition of land measuring 10 kanals situated at village Sarnal, Anantnag, by issuing a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act.
The Collector Land Acquisition after completion of the proceedings passed the final award in favour of the land owners and after receiving the awarded amount by the indent department (Directorate of Fire Services) the Collector immediately deposited the same in the Jammu & Kashmir Bank, TP Branch, Anantnag, with the request to the Manager of the Branch to transfer the award amount in the individual accounts of the land owners as per their entitlement.
The land owners, however, did not agree to accept the amount awarded and consequently filed an application before the Collector under Section 18 of the Act, seeking reference to the Principal District Judge, Anantnag as they were aggrieved of the rate fixed per kanal by the Collector Land for determination of the compensation.
The reference Court by virtue of orders passed from time to time, directed the Fire Services department to deposit the interest on the awarded amount. The coercive measures have also been ordered by the reference Court to secure deposit of the amount.
The Collector was directed to deposit the amount with the reference Court along with interest at the rate of 6 percent for the first year from the date of taking over the possession of the land and with further interest at the rate of 10 percent for the subsequent years.
It is urged that amount of compensation, if any, deposited by the indent department or the Collector before the bank was not a valid deposit in the eyes of law.
While the coercive measures against Collector had been directed by the reference Court, the Collector shifted the burden on the indent department by stating that it is for the indenting department to deposit the requisite amount representing the statutory interest.
The Collector, it is pleaded, made a reference to the reference Court but did not deposit the award amount along with interest in the reference Court.
The land owners made a demand to the Collector for deposit of the award amount in the reference court as the same was not acceptable to them.
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