Lal Bahadur Rai And ORS v. The Union Of India And ORS

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA

Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.3470 of 2015 ====================================================== 1.

Lal Bahadur Rai s/o late Dukhit Rai 2.

Halkhori sah s/o Mosahib sah 3.

Jitendra Kumar Rai s/o late Daroga Rai 4.

Rabindra kumar Rai s/o late Damodar Rai all are resident of vill- sahejani P.S.- piro dist- Bhojpur.

... ... Petitioner/s

Versus

1.

The Union Of India 2.

The Assistant engineer construction, east central railway, Sasaram, distRohtas. 3.

The Collector, Bhojpur at Ara.

4.

The District land acquisition officer, Ara, dist- Bhojpur. ... ... Respondent/s ====================================================== Appearance :

For the Petitioner/s :

Mr.Rajani Ranjan Pd. Singh, Advocate For the UOI :

Mr.Ramadhar Shekhar, CGC For the State :

Mr.Ajay Behari Sinha, GA-8 ====================================================== CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV ROY ORAL ORDER 01-07-2025 Heard the parties.

2. The present petition has been preferred for :- "That this writ application is being filed in the nature of mandamus for giving the direction to the respondents to pay the compensation amount of award prepared under land acquisition act with 18% interest to the petitioners."

3. It is unfortunate that a writ petition was filed with simple prayer that the petitioners who were noticed to come with the relevant documents on 21.06.2014, so that

Patna High Court CWJC No.3470 of 2015(4) dt.01-07-2025 2/3 compensation amount can be released, failed to get the amount till the filing of the writ petition in the year 2015.

4. A coordinate Bench took up the matter in 24.03.2015, as also 28.04.2015 with the same direction that the State and Railways to file counter affidavits;

5. Ten years later that the matter has been taken up, there is no reply.

6. This court has two options:- (I) to impose cost upon the respondents and adjourn the matter for four weeks allowing them to file their respective counter affidavits;

(II) the alternate option is to direct the respondents to look into the matter and if the payments have still not been made, to clear it within the four weeks from the date the learned State counsel informs them about the order.

7. The court goes for the second option.

8. The writ petition is disposed off directing the respondents to look into the notices issued by the District Collector, Bhojpur at Ara, related to award no 26 (case no.13 of 2008), which is part of the writ petition relating to the petitioners and if the payments have not been made till date all of them shall be entitled to compensation amount if they are

Patna High Court CWJC No.3470 of 2015(4) dt.01-07-2025 3/3 able to show their documents/bona fide with interest of nine percent, in case the payment has already been cleared, the order shall be treated as infructuous. The entire exercises should be carried out within a period of four weeks.

(Rajiv Roy, J) Saurav/- U