M/S. COMPETENT AUTOMOBILES CO. LTD.versusUNION OF INDIA & ORS.

                  [2015] 3 S.C.R. 237


     M/S. COMPETENT AUTOMOBILES CO. LTD.                   A

                           v.
               UNION OF INDIA & ORS.

             (Civil Appeal No. 5054 of 2008)               B

                  FEBRUARY 26, 2015

 · [VIKRAMAJIT SEN AND PRAFULLA C. PANT, JJ.]

     Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land C
Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013:
s.24(2) - Declaration of lapse of acquisition u/s.24(2) - In
these appeals, questions whether award uls.11 of LA Act,
1894 was passed on or before 1.1.2009; that compensation
was not paid or possession was not taken over by the
                                                              0
acquirer were not answered - If the award is over 5 years
old; the compensation has not been paid; or possession of
the land has not been taken, the acquisition is liable to be
quashed - In all these appeals, submission of land owners E
was that either possession was still with them or
compensation was not tendered by the State, consequently
the land owners proposed to initiate proceedings founded
on s.24 of 2013 Act-Appeal is disposed of without entering
into merits by granting liberty to the land owners to pray F ·
for revival of the appeals in the event that orders u/s.24 of
2013 Act are adverse to their interest - Land owners are
permitted to initiate appropriate proceedings in the proper
forum/court seeking the benefit ofs. 24 of 2013 Act - Land
Acquisition Act, 1894.                                        G

    Pune Municipal Corporation v. Harakchand Misrimal
Solanki (2014) 3 SCC 183: 2014 (1) SCR 783; Union of

                          237                             H
238        SUPREME COURT REPORTS               [2015] 3 S.C.R.


A India v. Shiv Raj (2014) 6 SCC 564; Bimla Devi v. State of
  Haryana (2014) 6 SCC 583 - relied on.

                       Case Law Reference

          2014 (1) SCR 783       relied on.       Para 4
B
          (2014) 6 sec 564        relied on.      Para 4

          (2014) 6 sec 583        relied on.      Para 4
                                  "
C           CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No.
      · 5054 of 2008.

      From the Judgment and Order dated 25.08.2005 of the
  High Court of Delhi at New Delhi in W. P. (C) No. 4703 of
D 2002. ~
                               with

          C.A. Nos. 5050, 5051, 5052, 5053, 5100, 5101-5104,

E        5105-5124-, 5125, 5127-5129, 5283 of 2008, 3278,
      3279 and 3280 of 2012.

       · Dhruv Mehta, K. Radhakrishnan, Sanjay Poddar,
    Yashraj Singh Deora, Sapna Sinha, Anuparn Dhurve,
F Chandra Bhushan Prasad, M. A. Chinnasarny, Manoj
  · Swarup, Sorn Dutt Sharma, Ajay Kumar, Ashish Wad ( for
    J. S. Wad & Co.), P. S. Sudheer, Sudhir Kumar Gupta,
    Dushyant Parashar, Surya Kant, Shankar Divate, Vijay K.
    Jain, Kaveeta Wadia, Shanshak Tripathi, Surya Kant, Indra
G Sawhney, Kiran Bhardwaj, Sushrna Suri, P. Pararneswaran,
    V. K. Verma, Rachna Srivastava, Utkarsh Sharma, Govind
    Kumar, Anshurnan Nayak, Vishnu B. Saharya, Viresh B.
  · Saharya (for Saharya & Co.}, for the appearing parties.

H           The Order of the Court was delivered by
 COMPETENT AUTOMOBILES CO. LTD. v. UNION                       239
               OF INDIA

     VIKRAMAJIT SEN, J. 1. All of these Appeals were            A
                                       •
admitted before the commencement of the Right to Fair
Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. After
commencement thereof, the Appellants changed the tack
of their challenge - originally framed under the Land           B
Acquisition Act, 1894 - and impugned the acquisition
proceedings in toto, by evoking the deemed lapse of
proceedings under Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act. Any
determination under this provision must proceed
sequentially. First, the factum of an Award under Section       C
11 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, must be clearly
established. The said Award must predate the
commencement of the Act, i.e., 01.01.2014., by at least five
years (or more), ie., the Award must have been passed on
                                                                0
or before 01.01.2009. This having been established, if
possession is found to not have been taken, or
compensation not paid, then the proceedings shall be
deemed to have lapsed. Thereafter, the appropriate
Government, if it so chooses, may reinitiate acquisition        E
proceedings in respect of the same land, but under the 2013
Act's regime.      ·

     2. _Each and every deeming operation under Section
24(2) requires unambiguously and unvaryingly that a factual F
conclusion be drawn about the passing of the Award under
Section 11, of the 1894 Act, on or before 01.01.2009;
further, the absence of compensation having been paid or
the absence of possession having been taken by the
acquirer, either of these, must be a proven point of fact, as G
a threshold requirement attracting the lapse.

    3. From the record, these Appeals do not
unambiguously answer these indispensable queries, which
inarguably must precede any declaration of lapse of H
240        SUPREME COURT REPORTS                  (2015] 3 S.C.R.


A acquisition under Section 24(2). Each of these Appeals
  must factually satisty this Court on the ingredients of Section
  24(2), before this Court may pass a declaration in
  recognition of the statutory lapse of acquisition.

 B    4. This Court has in a number of decisions including
  Pune Municipal Corporation vs. Harakchand Misirimal
  Solanki (2014) 3 SCC 183, Union of India vs. Shiv Raj
  (2014) 6 SCC 564 and Bimla Devi vs. State of Haryana
  (2014) 6 sec 583, clarified the manner in which the new
C provision is to be 'interpreted viz., that the acquisition lapses.

        5. It has been contended in other Appeals before this
   Court that the Right to Fair Compensation and
  ·Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and
D Settlement Ordinance, 2014, issued on 31•1 December,
   2014, clarifies that if possession of the acquired land has
   not been taken owing to interim Orders passed in this regard
   the acquisition may be protected and insulated from the
   purpose and intendment of Section 24 of the 2013 Act.
E This Court has now clarified in Radiance Fincap (P) Lid. v.
   Union of India & Ors. [Civil Appeal No. 4283 of 2011 decided
   on 12.01.2015] that the Ordinance shall have prospective
   operation only. · This Court therein held as under:

F        "The right conferred to the land holders/owners of the
         acquired land under Section 24(2) of the Act is the
         statutory right and, therefore, the said right cannot be
         taken away by an Ordinance by inserting proviso to the
      ·• abovesaid sub-Section without giving retrospective
G        effect to the same."

       The legal position has been subsequently reiterated by
  this Court in Arvind Bansal v. State of Haryana (Civil Appeal
  Nos.417-418 of 2015 decided on 13.01.2015) and Karnail
H Kaur v. State of Punjab [Civil Appeal No. 7424 of 2013
 COMPETENT AUTOMOBILES CO. LTD. v. UNION                241
      OF INDIA [VIKRAMAJIT SEN, J.] ·

decided on 22.01 :2015]. We are in respectful agreement A·
with all these decisions. In the event that there is no
ambiguity that (a) the Award is over five years old and (b)
that compensation has not been paid or (c) that possession
of the land has not been taken, the acquisition is liable to
be quashed. In Rajiv Chowdhrie HUF v. Union of India [Civil B
Appeal No.8786 of 2013, decided on 06.02.2015], noting
that the physical possession of the land had not been taken
by the Respondents, nor compensation paid by the
Respondents to the Appellant in .respect whereof the Award
was passed on 6.08.2007, the acquisition proceedings had C
been declared as having lapsed. The same position was
arrived at in Rajiv Chowdhrie HUF v. Union of India in Civil
Appeal No.8785 of 2013 decided on 10.12.2014 by a
different Bench of this Court.
                                                             D
     5. In all these Appeals, the submission of the land
owners is that either possession is still with them, or
compensation has not been tendered by the State.
Consequently, the land owners propose to initiate
proceedings founded on Section 24 of the Right to Fair E
Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (hereinafter
referred to as 'the 2013 Act").

      6. Having heard all the learned counsel, we are F
persuaded to dispose of-these proceedings, without entering
on the merits, by granting liberty to the land owners before
us to pray for the revival of the Appeals in the event that
Orders under Section 24 of the 2013 Act are adverse to
their interest. We, therefore, permit the land owners to G
initiate appropriate proceedings in the proper forum/court,
seeking the benefit of Section 24 of the 2013 Act, within
eight weeks from today.. We clarify that, in the event that
a~y land owners hal)e already approached the High Court H
242         SUPREME COURT REPORTS                [2015] 3 S.C.R.


A concerned, their plea under Section 24 of the 2013 Act shall
  be decided on merits.

       7. It is in these circumstances that all these Appeals
   are disposed of with liberty to the parties to revive these
 B Appeals in the event that the Orders under Section 24 of
   the 2013 Act are seen as adverse to their interest. Interim
   protection, if already granted, shall continue for a period of
   90 days from today.

c          8. It is further clarified that the parties desirous of
      reviving the Appeal must approach this Court within 90 days
      of the passing of the High Court's orders.

          9. The Appeals stand disposed of with the aforesaid
      observations and directions.
0
      Devika Gujral                            Appeals disposed of.




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