Madras high court pulls up Kancheepuram District Collector

Chennai: The Madras high court has observed, “The attitude of the Kancheepuram District Collector display indifference to the statute and to the directions of this court in the earlier petition. If this sort of indifference is shown by bureaucrats, the governance of the State will soon go to nadir. This court hopes that at least in future the authorities will show some empathy on the persons who are deprived of their lands to forcible acquisition”.

Allowing the petition filed by Mohana Jagadeesan, Senthil Jagadeesan and T.Chitty Babu, Justice G.Jayachandran made the observations while quashing an order of the Kancheepuram District Collector, rejecting the request of the petitioner s to refer their plea to the Tribunal for enhancement of compensation for the lands acquired from them at Tambaram for laying of six lane highways road.

The case of the petitioners was that the award was passed on September 15, 2011 and the same was communicated to the petitioners belatedly. The award amount was received by the petitioners under protest.

Thereafter, attempts were made by the petitioners to get the award copy so that they can prefer petition for reference. Since the authorities have not furnished the full text of the award copy, they were forced to file petition and pursuant to the order passed in the petition, the district collector has furnished the full text of the award on September 12, 2014 within 60 days from the date of receipt of the award copy. Despite presenting the application for reference, the collector has declined to refer the mater for adjudication stating that it was barred by limitation, they added.

The judge said the award was signed by the collector after 45 days on October 31, 2011 and the petitioners were intimated for receiving the award amount nearly after one year. The petitioners have appeared before the collector and received the compensation on December 6 and 11, 2012 under protest, without prejudice to seeking higher compensation for their land. While so, the intention of the petitioners that the award of compensation fixed was not adequate was made known to the Kancheepuram collector on the date when he disbursed the compensation amount. Further, in the counter, the collector  candidly admit that the non-furnishing of full award proceedings was not required for preferring the application for reference and it will not extend the limitation prescribed under the TN Highways Act. “The understanding of the Collector in this regard is miserably very poor and having put to notice that the compensation awarded to them is not adequate and received the same under protest, in all fairness, the Collector ought to have referred the matter for adjudication which he has failed to do so. The authorities have not served the award copy to the petitioners at free of cost, which is mandate under the statute. Only after approaching this court, the authorities have furnished the full text of the award copy to the petitioners. That apart, when the petitioners have submitted their representations for enhancement of compensation and interest for belated payment, the collector has rejected the same on a frivolous ground that it is barred by limitation”, the judge added.

The judge directed the Kancheepuram District Collector to refer the matter to the Tribunal, within four weeks. There shall not be any further delay on the part of the authorities in referring the matter, the judge added.