Compensation not given for 45 years, High Court now imposes Rs 1 lakh fine on Railways
The single bench of Justice Gurpal Singh
Ahluwalia of High Court took to task the attitude of Railways, under which
compensation was not given for the last 45 years after taking the land. The
court imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Railways for this mistake. Instructions
were also given to pay rent along with interest for so many years.
Along with this, instructions were also given
to pay compensation under the New Land Owner Acquisition Act. The High Court
directed to complete this process in one month. Actually, Railways needed land
for the construction of loco shed. Action was taken to acquire 0.45 acres of
land of Katni resident Keshav Kumar Nigam. Railways got the possession of the
land on 17 February 1979. After this, the process of land acquisition went on
for about 20 years, but Railways did not deposit the compensation amount. After
this, the land acquisition case was closed.
Therefore, Keshav Kumar Nigam filed a petition
in the High Court in the year 2002. It is surprising that no reply was
submitted by the state government during the pendency of the petition in the
last 22 years. Meanwhile, while the petition was pending, the petitioner Keshav
died.
In such a situation, the names of his heirs
Shashi Nigam, Rakesh Nigam, Anuradha Shrivastava and Rajni Mendekar were added.
Advocate Ajay Raijada pleaded on their behalf. The railways said in its reply
that the award has been passed and Rs 37,000 has been deposited along with
interest.
Advocate Raijada said that the railways are making false statements and no award has been passed yet. The above reply was submitted in February 2014. After giving several opportunities and the court adopting a strict stand, the records were presented which made it clear that no award had been passed at all.
