Land cannot be acquired by merely issuing notification under Section 4: Division Bench

 Land cannot be acquired by merely issuing notification under Section 4: Division Bench 

Division Bench of the High Court ofnJammu and Kashmir and Ladakh comprising Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Wasim Sadiq Narga has held that private land can- not be acquired by theGovernment by merely issuing notification under Section 4 of the relevant law and such pro- ceedings culminate only with the final declaration followed by an award.The Division Bench was dealing with a writ petition wherein it was submitted that the land acquisition proceedings pursuant to the notification dated December 21, 2016 have lapsed and directions should be

issued to the respondents that if they still require the land in question they may follow the procedure under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. The petitioners submitted that their land was notified to be acquired vide notification dated December 21, 2016 issued under Section 4 of the J&K Land Acquisition Act and thereafter a meeting of District Private Negotiation Committee (DPNC) was held on July 24, 2017. The compen- sation at the rate of Rs 15.50 lakh per kanal was agreed upon but could not be final-ized as the matter was beyond the jurisdiction of the Deput Commissioner concerned. Accordingly, the matter was forwarded to the Divisional Commissioner on August 8,

2017 for his approval. The peti-

tioners alleged that without

finalizing the acquisition either

by issuing a notification under

Section 6 of the Act or the

DPNC, the respondents cannot

proceed further in the matter and

since in the meantime, the J&K

Land Acquisition Act has been

repealed, it is incumbent upon

the respondents to enter into de-

novo exercise to acquire the land

according to the provisions of

Right to Fair Compensation and

Transparency in Land

Acquisition, Rehabilitation and

Resettlement Act, 2013.

The respondents submitted

that necessary approval has been

received from the Financial

Commissioner Revenue through

Divisional Commissioner vide

letter dated June 16, 2020 for the

payment of compensation as set-

tled in DPNC.