Supreme Courtroom mentioned there isn’t any hurt in showing by way of video conferencing.
New Delhi:
“There isn’t any hurt in showing by way of video conferencing”, the Supreme Courtroom on Thursday instructed to secretary of Ministry of Defence, who has been requested to seem earlier than the Madhya Pradesh Excessive Courtroom in a contempt case associated to a land compensation matter.
The highest courtroom was listening to the plea filed by Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar in search of keep of the excessive courtroom order of August 18 directing him to seem earlier than it in a contempt case on Thursday by way of video conferencing.
It was knowledgeable that the excessive courtroom adjourned the matter by one week.
“Listing the matter after two weeks,” mentioned the order by a bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, which orally noticed, “there isn’t any hurt in showing by way of video conferencing”.
Extra Solicitor Common KM Nataraj, who appeared for the Defence Secretary, contended that the difficulty shouldn’t be even remotely related with the officer.
“All the matter is pending with the reference courtroom to adjudicate the declare concerning compensation. How can the quantity be disbursed with out adjudicating,” he mentioned.
He mentioned that the Excessive Courtroom had with out going into the details and circumstances of the case directed the secretary of the Ministry of Defence to seem within the matter.
He added that the whole matter concerning the adjudication on the compensation is already pending earlier than the Reference Courtroom subsequently and no objective can be served in calling the Defence Secretary to present any rationalization.
The dispute within the matter bought triggered after the Central authorities on Could 6, 2016, issued notification imposing restrictions, specified underneath provisions of the Works of Defence Act, 1903, upon the use and delight of the land mendacity within the neighborhood of Army Station Sukhlalpur, in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh.
The Excessive Courtroom, whereas disposing of writ petitions filed by sure aggrieved individuals had in 2017 directed applicable steps be taken to find out the damages and cost of damages on account of imposition of restrictions in regard to make use of of lands inside a interval of six months.
The plea filed by defence secretary, by way of advocate Sachin Sharma, mentioned that aggrieved individuals have filed three frivolous contempt petitions earlier than the Excessive Courtroom.
It mentioned that they’ve instructed the Excessive Courtroom by means of affidavit that the order which has been sought to be complied with primarily relaxation with the collector, as in accordance to the requirement of Works of Defence Act, 1903 (WODA) he’s the competent authority to proceed for the dedication of the compensation quantity.
The petition mentioned that from perusal of the assorted affidavits filed earlier than the Excessive Courtroom in contempt petitions by any stretch of creativeness “it can’t be construed that there’s any willful disobedience of any of the orders handed by the Courtroom”.
It mentioned that the Petitioners had apprised the courtroom of every step taken by the collector who’s the last word authority to disburse the compensation to the events involved and the impugned order dated August 18, shouldn’t be sustainable within the eyes of legislation.
“It’s price mentioning that the delay in disbursement of the compensation to the Respondents is barely attributable to the Collector Land Acquisition who not as soon as however thrice dedicated an error in calculating the compensation and thereafter revised the identical,” the plea mentioned.
It added that when the ultimate calculation was accomplished by the Collector vide order dated September 27, 2019 the identical was challenged by the Petitioner earlier than the Reference Courtroom underneath part 18 of the WODA.
It’s additional submitted that “even the Collector Land acquisition was confused between the provisions of WODA, the Land Acquisition Act, and the Proper to Honest Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013”.
“For the reason that matter was already sub-judice earlier than the Reference Courtroom to adjudicate the Software underneath part 18 of the WODA, there isn’t any function in any respect of the Defence Secretary to come back and clarify the steps taken in the direction of compliance of the order dated August 30, 2017”, it mentioned.
On November 13, 2018, the Collector (Land Acquisition) Jabalpur, with out going into the truth that the current proceedings have been ruled by the Work of Defence Act and never by the Land Acquisition Act erroneously made an preliminary award of over Rs 10 crores.
On January 25, 2019, the Collector (Land Acquisition) Jabalpur, whereas correcting the sooner calculation, made an inaccurate award of over Rs Six crores with out making use of the provisions of the Works and Defence Act. On September 27, 2019, the collector with out going into the details and circumstances of the case and opposite to the standards offered underneath the Works of Defence Act, once more recalculated the compensation quantity of practically Rs two crores.
On July 31, 2020, the ministry of Defence being aggrieved by the recalculation accomplished by the Collector of practically Rs two crores opposite to the provisions of Works of Defence Act, filed an software earlier than the suitable discussion board.
That matter was on August 17, 2020 was referred by the Collector to the District Decide/Reference Courtroom for adjudication of the difficulty pertaining to the dedication of the Compensation quantity.
Nonetheless, the Excessive Courtroom on August 18 whereas listening to a contempt petition requested the Defence secretary and others to seem on October eight, earlier than it to elucidate the state of affairs.
Source link
