Poshetty'&
Ors Vs. State of Andhra
Pradesh [1996] INSC
1036 (28 August 1996)
Ramaswamy,
K. Ramaswamy, K. Venkataswami K. (J)
ACT:
HEAD NOTE:
O R D
E R
This
appeal by leave granted by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh under Article 133
of the Constitution arises from its Full Bench judgment dated February 21, 1991 in Writ Petition No.12604 of 1987.
In this appeal, the only controversy is: whether service of notice of award
passed under Section 11 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 [for short, the
Act"] along with its enclosure, is a pre- condition under subsection (2)
of Section 12 of the Act. The Full Bench of the High Court by judgment dated September 12, 1990 in Writ Petition No.13203 of 1985
and batch held that service of the award with notice is not necessary. The
learned Judges relying upon the omission of second clause in proviso to Section
18 (2) of the Act held that it is not necessary that copy of the award should
be served. It is contended by Shri D. P. Reddy, learned counsel for the
appellants that sub-section (2) of Section (2) was interpreted by a Division
Bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court in Milap Carriers, Transport Contractor and
Commission Agent, Hyderabad vs. National Insurance Company ltd., Hyderabad [AIR
1994 A.P 24]. The Full Bench therefore, was not right in its construction The
controversy is no longer res integra. This Court in State of Punjab & Anr. vs.
Satinder Bir Singh [(1995) 3 SCC 330 ] has considered the scope of sub-section
(2) of Section 12 vis-a-vis proviso to sub-section (2) of Section 18 and held
as under:
"The
question then is whether the notice under Section 12(2) is a valid notice. From
a conjoint reading of Section 11 and 12, it is clear that notice is only an An
intimation of making of the award requiring the owner or person interested to
receive compensation awarded under Section 11. On receipt of the notice, if the
person interested receives compensation without protest, obviously no reference
need be made. The determination of compensation becomes final and binds the parties.
When he receives the compensation under protest as contemplated under Section
31 of the Act, the need to make the application for reference under Section
18(1) would arise At that juncture, it will be open to the person interested
either to make an inspection of the award which was conclusive between him and
the Collector by operation of sub- section (1) of Section 12, or seek a
certified copy of the award from the Collector and the contents.
Thereon,
he could make necessary objection for the determination, inter alia, of
compensation for the land. It is not necessary that the notice should contain
all the details of the award including his consideration and its manner of
determination of the compensation as opined by the learned Judge of the High Court.
It is not incumbent that the person interested should immediately make the
reference application on his receiving compensation under Section 31. In other
words, receipt of the amount and making the reference application are not
simultaneous.
The
statutory operation of limitation mentioned by Section 18(2) does not depend on
the ministerial act of communication of notice in any particular form when the
Act or Rules has not prescribed any form. The limitation begins to operate from
the moment the notice under Section 12(2) is received or as envisaged by
Section 18(2)" It is seen that sub-section (1) of Section 12 postulates
that award made under Section 11 shall be filed in the Collector's Office and
the same shall be final and conclusive evidence as between the Collector and
the persons interested, whether or not they have respectively appeared before
the Collector, of the true area of the land acquired, the value of the land
acquired and the apportionment of the compensation among the persons interested.
The Collector is, therefore, required to issue notice of his award to such of
the persons interested who were either not present personally or were present
through representatives when the Collector made his award. Sub-section (2),
therefore, requires him to give immediate notice of award to such interested
persons and not simply the communication of the award as contended form If such
interested person who was present personally or through the representative at
the time of makings of the award, is not required to be supplied the copy of
the award, would it be intended that the award should be served along with
notice to a person who was not present. This question was considered in the
above case and it was held that the service of notice is a ministerial act and
the Act did not intend to supply the copy of the award.
The
limitation provided under proviso to sub-section (2) of Section 18 prescribes
that if an applicant is present or represented, has to make an application when
he receives the compensation under protest within six weeks from the date of
the Collector's award and where he was not present within six weeks of the
receipt of the notice from the Collector under sub-section (2) of Section 12 or
within 6 months from the date of the Collector's award, whichever period shall
first expire. In other words, the proviso to sub-section (2) of Section 18
prescribes the limitation within which the application for reference under
sub-section (1) of Section 18 is required to be made and the failure thereof puts
an end of the right to the claimant to seek a reference under Section 18. This
Court has already held that communication of the award is not a pre-condition
and, therefore, the Full Bench of the High Court was right in its
interpretation of the provisions of Section 18, proviso read with sub-section
(2) of Section 12. The local amendment does not, therefore, make any material
change to the aforestated interpretation.
The
appeal is accordingly dismissed but, in the circumstances, without costs.
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