Syed Rabbani v. The Arbitrator Under National Highways Act, 1956

THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE S.V.BHATT WRIT PETITION No.27603 of 2016 ORDER:

Petitioners complain against inaction of first respondent in disposing of arbitration applications in File Nos.G3/6261/2008 & G3/2863/2012; G3/6267/2008 and G3/6263/2008 as completely illegal and amounts to violation of Article 300-A of the Constitution of India.

2. Learned Government Pleader for Land Acquisition was granted time to take instructions and make submission on behalf of first respondent on the time limit for completion of these cases. The first respondent has forwarded written instructions through Lr.No.G3/6259/2008 dated 18.08.2016. The concluding portion of the letter reads as follows: "I therefore request the Government pleader to bring these facts to the notice of Hon'ble High Court and pray for long time ie., at least (3) months to pass the orders in all (147) arbitration cases covered in

(10) villages of Toopran Mandal as the District Collector, Medak is busy in several flagship programmes of the Government in addition to the work of bifurcation of District, formation of new Revenue divisions, Mandals and other allied works."

3. This Court, after perusing the year in which the arbitration applications were taken on file and continued inaction in disposing of these applications, in fact, would have stipulated around four weeks to six weeks for disposal of these case by first respondent. However, it is brought to the notice of this Court that 147 arbitration applications on this stretch of widening are still pending with the first respondent and all the cases are required to be disposed of simultaneously.

Therefore, this Court accepts the time requested by the first respondent and the writ petition is ordered by directing the first respondent to take all necessary steps for adhering to the time schedule informed to this Court and pass orders in the pending cases.

The writ petition is ordered as indicated above. As a sequel, the miscellaneous applications, if any pending, shall stand closed. There shall be no order as to costs.

____________ S. V. BHATT, J August 19, 2016 Note: Furnish C.C. in one week.

(B/o) DSK