1 2025:CGHC:5914 NAFR HIGH COURT OF CHHATTISGARH AT BILASPUR WPC No. 5982 of 2024 1 Arvind Gupta S/o Shri Banshidhar Gupta Aged About 53 Years R/o Pipal Chowk (Jai Stambh Chowk), Ward No. 9, Ramanujganj, District Balrampur, C.G. 2 Pravin Gupta S/o Shri Bhrigunath Gupta Aged About 50 Years R/o Pipal Chowk (Jai Stambh Chowk), Ward No. 9, Ramanujganj, District Balrampur, C.G. 3 Ranjit Gupta S/o Brijmohan Gupta Aged About 35 Years R/o Pipal Chowk (Jai Stambh Chowk), Ward No. 9, Ramanujganj, District Balrampur, C.G. ... Petitioner(s) versus 1 State Of Chhattisgarh Through The Secretary, Public Works Department, Mantralaya, Mahanadi Bhavan, Naya Raipur, District Raipur, C.G. 2 The Collector Department Of Land Acquisition, Balrampur, District Balrampur, C.G. 2 3 The Executive Engineer Public Works Department, Division-2, Ambikapur, District Sarguja, C.G. 4 The Sub Divisional Officer (Revenue) Ambikapur, District Sarguja, C.G. ... Respondent(s) For Petitioner(s) : Shri Somnath Verma, Advocate For Respondent(s)/ State : Ms. Anuja Sharma, P.L. Hon’ble Shri Bibhu Datta Guru, Judge Order on Board 31/01/2025 Heard. 1. By the present writ petition, the petitioners, who are the legal heirs/representatives of land owners namely; Banshidhar, Bhrigunath & Brijmohajn, respectively in respect of Khasra No. 534/1 area 0.252 hect and Khasra No. 1479/1 area 0.020 hect total area 0.272 hect, seek a direction towards the respondent authorities for releasing the compensation amount for the aforesaid land which has been acquired by respondents for construction of Ambikapur-Ramaujganj-road. 3 2. The Land Acquisition Officer has passed an award on 15.06.1987, fixing compensation of Rs. 1,00,000/- per hectare. The Land Acquisition Officer has assessed the petitioners’ plot and passed the award of Rs. 37,808/- in their favour, which is reflected from the “Muwabja Patrak”. 3. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that though the award has been passed on 15.06.1987, but till date the respondents have not released the said award inspite of repeated requests. 4. Learned counsel for the State, on instructions, submit that there is some dispute between the parties for which the amount of compensation has not been released to the petitioners. 5. On a query made to the learned counsel for the petitioners, he submits that the contents of the affidavit filed by the State is not correct, as there is no dispute between the parties and in fact all the legal representatives of Banshidhar Gupta, Bhrigunath Gupta and Brijmohan Gupta have jointly preferred this writ petition and even today there is no dispute among the petitioners. Hence the non payment of the compensation amount towards the petitioners is arbitrary and illegal. 6. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the documents annexed. 7. Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, as the petitioners have jointly filed the writ petition who are entitled for land compensation, if there is no dispute between the parties, they 4 are directed to approach the Land Acquisition Officer for the payment of compensation within a period of 15 days from today and the Land Acquisition Officer shall release the amount of compensation to the petitioners immediately by examining the application submitted by them, verifying whether the petitioners are legal heirs and representatives of the land owners whose name has been recorded in Annexure P-2. The Land Acquisition Officer shall also consider the fact that as amount of compensation has not been paid to the land owners for a long period whether they are entitled for the interest on the said amount or not and necessary steps be taken in accordance with law for payment of interest, if they are entitled on the compensation amount mentioned in Annexure P-2. 8. With the aforesaid observation, the petition stands disposed off Sd/- (Bibhu Datta Guru) JUDGE Jyoti