Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Dec 6 : High Court while dismissing the plea of villagers of Ganderbal district on forestalling the construction of road under Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) said the villagers are indulging in legal engineering to mislead the court and to stall the construction of road which otherwise is in lager public interest.
The villagers were seeking quashing of the notification dated 14th November 2010 issued under Section 4 of the J&K Land Acquisition Act and the tentative award passed by the Collector, Land Acquisition in lieu of the acquisition as also the tender notice of October 2021 for the award of work of construction of the road from Thune to Badipathri.
They were also seeking that the authorities of PMGSY be restrained from undertaking the construction work of the aforesaid road as sanctioned and approved under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and for holding an enquiry through the Crime Branch with regard to the irregularities committed in acquiring the land by misusing the official position
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice M Akram Chowdhary opined that the villagers of village Thune in Tehsil Kangan of District Ganderbal are misusing their right to approach this Court by filing successive writ petitions concerning the same acquisition and they cannot plead ignorance of the earlier litigation as both the petitions have been filed through the same counsel.
The DB said the villagers have been indulged in legal engineering probably to mislead the court and somehow to stall the construction of the road which is in larger public interest. “The petitioners are coming before the court to question the notification dated 14th November 2010 issued under Section 4 (1) of the Act after about 11 years in the garb of challenging the NIT dated 11th October 2021 issued for inviting tenders for construction of the road that too without disclosing the full and complete facts. we do not deem it necessary to exercise our discretionary jurisdiction in this matter and dismisses the petition with costs”, DB concluded.
The DB after perusal of the previous judgment on the same issue which was filed by these villagers alleging therein that the officials in connivance with certain persons are unnecessarily acquiring the land in the village for the purposes of construction of a road and as such no road should be constructed, judicial enquiry be held in the matter of its acquisition and payment of compensation and in treating Kahcharaie as the proprietary land said, the dispute was regarding construction of 8 Kms of road from Thune to Badipathri in Tehsil Kangan District Ganderbal and it has come on record that the aforesaid acquisition was initiated on the intent received from the Executive Engineer, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
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