Holding

No valid Section 18 reference was made; consequently the civil court lacked jurisdiction to enhance compensation and the conversion of a Section 30 reference into a Section 18 reference was illegal.

Summary

The Allahabad Development Authority acquired about 2.5 bighas of government land in 1987 and fixed compensation of Rs. 9,80,565.06. Both the Government and the lessees claimed the compensation, so the Special Land Acquisition Officer (SLAO) referred the dispute to the civil court under Section 30 of the Land Acquisition Act for apportionment. The Additional District Judge later discovered an application by Prayag Upnivesh Awas Evam Nirman Sahkari Samiti Ltd. under Section 18, which was not mentioned in the original reference letter, and treated the case as a Section 18 reference, enhancing compensation and allocating 75% to the Samiti. The High Court set aside the enhancement, holding that no proper Section 18 reference existed and that the civil court lacked jurisdiction to decide the enhancement. The Supreme Court affirmed the High Court, ruling that a letter from the SLAO does not constitute a valid Section 18 reference and that a Section 30 reference cannot be converted into a Section 18 reference, dismissing the appeal.

Issues considered

The SLAO made a valid reference under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act.
Whether a reference under Section 30 can be converted into a reference under Section 18.
Whether the civil court had jurisdiction to entertain an application for enhancement of compensation without a proper Section 18 reference.
Whether the appellant‑Samiti could be impleaded as a party to a reference that was originally filed under Section 30.

Legislation cited

Land Acquisition Act, 1894s. 17, s. 18, s. 21, s. 30, s. 4, s. 6

Subjects

Land acquisitionSection 18 referenceSection 30 referenceCivil court jurisdictionCompensation enhancementReference conversionAward modificationApportionment of compensation

Judgment

- PRAYAG UPNIVESH AWAS EVAM NIRMAN SAHKARI SAMIT! LTD. A
v.
ALLAHABAD VIKAS PRADHIKARAN AND ANR.

APRIL 16, 2003

[K.G. BALAKRISHNAN AND P. VENKATARAMA REDD!, JJ.] B

Land Acquisition Act, 1894; Ss. 17, 18 & 30: Land acquisition-Award-
Reference-Enhancement ofcompensation-Jurisdiction ofCivil Court-Held:
Petition filed under Section 30 can not appropriately be converted into C
Reference under Section 18, it is not proper to implead appellant as a party
to Reference when he was not made party to petition filed under Section 30-
Court lacks jurisdiction to decide on the issue of compensation which was not
referred to it by way of raising objections against the Award

Respondent-Authority had acquired certain lands under the D
provisions of Land Acquisition Act and an Award was passed. The land
in question was Government land and earlier it was given to the lessee.
The period of lease expired in 1960. Since both the Government and the
lessee claimed compensation in respect of the said land, the Special Land
Acquisition officer (SLAO) referred the dispute to the Civil Court under
Section 30 of the Act. The Court having found an application filed by the E
appellant under Section 18 of the Act was on the file of SLAO and yet he
was not made party in the petition, passed an order impleading the
appellant as party by treating the petition as Reference petition and
disposed it by modifying the Award, enhancing the compensation and also
directed sharing of Award between the Government and the appellant in F
certain proportion. Respondents challenged the Award and the High Court
.;et aside the modified Award. Hence the present appeal.

It was contended for the appellant that since Reference petition filed
by the appellant was already submitted along with the petition filed by
the SLAO, the Reference was perfect under Section 18 of the Act. G
On behalf of the respondents, it was submitted that since the
Reference was not properly filed as per provisions under Section 18 of
the Act, the Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain such petition as Reference
petition.
567 H
568 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2003) 3 S.C.R.

A Dismissing the appeal, the Court

HELD: I.I. The letter from SLAO (Special Land Acquisition Officer)
by itself is not sufficient to make it as a Reference purported to have been
made under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act. The Additional
District Judge erred in assuming that there was a Reference under
B Section 18 of the Act. The subsequent impleadment of the Samiti as a party
to the Reference, which \\'.~S pending under Section 30 of the Act, and the
conversion of the same also as a Reference under Section 18, were illegal
and has rightly been quashed by the High Court. (571-D-EI

C 1.2. It is well established that the Reference Court gets jurisdiction
only if the matter is referred to it under Section 18 or 30 of the Act by
the Land Acquisition Officer and that Civil Court has got the jurisdiction
and authority only to decide the objections referred to it. The Reference
Court cannot widen the scope of its jurisdiction or decide matters which
are not referred to it. (571-FI
D
Pramatha Nath Mullick Bahadur v. Secretary of State, AIR (1930) PC
64; Mohammed Hasnuddin v. State of Maharashtra, (197912 SCC 572; K.
Kankarathanamma and Ors. v. State of Andhra Pradesh and Ors., 119641 6
SCR 294 and Ajjam Linganna v. Land Acquisition officer, (200219 SCC 426,
relied on.
E
1.3. In the instant case, there was no Reference by the SLAO under
Section 18 of the Act and the appellant-Samiti was not before the SLAO.
Even the application allegedly filed has rightly been characterized as
suspicious by the High Court as no mention has been made by the SLAO
in the Reference letter. In the absence of a proper Reference, the
-
F Additional District Judge had no jurisdiction to decide the question of
enhancement of compensation. When such an objection was not referred
to the Court, there was complete lack of jurisdiction. (574-A-BI

CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 3064 of2000.

G From the Judgment and Order dated 11.2.1998 of the Allahabad High
Court in F.A. No. 628 of 1995.

Sunil Gupta, Pramod Dayal and Ms. Lipika Sharma for the Appellant.

D.A. Davey, Rakesh U. Upadhyay, B.P. Yadav and T.N. Singh and
H A.K. Srivastava for the Respondents.
. .I

PRA YAG UPNIVESH AW AS EVAM NlRMAN SAHKARI SAMm LID.~. ALLAHABAD VIKAS PRADHJKARAN IBALAKRISHNAN. J.j 569

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by A
K.G. BALAKRISHNAN, J. An extent of 2 bigha, 5 biswa and 8 dhur
of land falling in Village Civil Station in the city of Allahabad was acquired
under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, "the Act"),
for establishing a commercial district centre at the instance of the Allahabad
Development Authority (ADA). Notification under Section 4(1) of the Act B
was published on 13.1.1987 and Declaration under Section 6(1) was made on
6.2.1987. Emergency provision under Section 17 of the Act was invoked and
the award was published on 25.5.1987. The land in question was government
land which had been given on lease to Shiv Narain Chaudhary, Laxman
Narain Chaudhary and others. The period of lease had expired in 1960 and C
it was not renewed. The award was passed on 25. 5. 1987 and the compensation
was fixed at Rs. 9,80,565.06. As both the Government and the lease holders
claimed the compensation, the Special Land Acquisition Officer (SLAO)
referred this dispute to the Civil Court on 12. I0. 1987 under Section 30 of
the Act. The Reference was registered as Reference Case No. 124 of 1987
and the matter was pending before the I Ith Addi. District Judge, Allahabad. D
While the matter was so pending, the Addi. District Judge, Allahabad, sent
a communication on 11. 8. 1992 to the SLAO stating that on perusal of the
case file, an application filed under Section 18 of the Act by the appellant
herein, namely, Prayag Upnivesh Awas Evam Nirman Sahkari Samiti Ltd.
(Appellant-Samiti), was found to be on the file and that no mention had been E
made regarding that application in the letti!r of Reference. A clarification,
therefore, was sought by the Addi. District Judge. Pursuant to this
communication, the SL.AO sent the reply stating that such an application was
also attached and due to an error, the same was not mentioned in the letter
dated 12.10.1987. After the receipt of this letter, the I Ith Addi. District
Judge imp leaded the appellant-Samiti and proceeded in the matter as if there F
was a proper Reference under Section 18 of the Act. It was held by the Addi.
District Judge that for the land acquired by the Government, the market value
shall be Rs. 1,400 per square yard. Seventy five per cent of the compensation
was directed to be paid to the appellant-Samiti and the balance twenty five
per cent was directed to be paid to the State Government.
G
The award passed by the Addi. District Judge was challenged by the
sponsoring authority, viz., Allahabad Development Authority (ADA) as well
as the State. ADA urged before the High Court that there was no proper
Reference under Section 18 of the Act for enhancement of the compensation
and that the Addi. District Judge had no jurisdiction to grant enhancement of H
-
570 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2003] 3 S.C.R.

A compensation. It was submitted that the appellant-Samiti did not participate
in the acquisition proceedings and therefore, they were not entitled to file
Reference application under Section 18 of the Act. The High Court accepted
the contentions raised by the ADA and the State and held that there was no
proper reference under Section 18 of the Act and enhancement of compensation
ordered by the reference court was set aside. However, the finding on issue
B No. 2 that the Samiti will be entitled to get seventy five per cent of the
compensation amount and the balance twenty five per cent shall be given to
the State, was affirmed. The judgment of the Division Bench of the High
Court is challenged before us.

C We heard the appellant's counsel and counsel for the respondents. The
counsel for the appellant-Samiti submitted before us that the SLAO, by his
subsequent letter, clarified that an error had been committed in not mentioning
about the application submitted by the appellant-Samiti in the Reference
letter, although such application itself had been sent along with the Reference
file by the SLAO to the Additional District Judge. Learned counsel submitted
D that there was proper Reference under Section 18 of the Act and, therefore,
the award passed by the Civil Court was proper and valid and was not liable
to be quashed by the High Court. Learned counsel for the respondent, on the
other hand, submitted that there was no proper Reference under Section 18
and as there was no such Reference, the Addi. District Judge lacked jurisdiction
E and, therefore, the award passed by the learned Addi. District Judge is nones!
and has rightly been set aside by the High Court.

The short question that arises for consideration is whether the SLAO
had made a reference under Section 18 of the Act? Admittedly, the original
reference was only under Section 30 of the Act, for apportionment as there
F was a dispute as to who should get the compensation.

In the Reference l~tter sent by the SLAO on 12. I0. J987, nothing has
been stated regarding the claim for enhancement of compensation put in by
any of the parties. It is also pertinent to note that in the reference Jetter, the
appellant-Samiti is not shown as a party. The first claimant is one, Shiv
G Narain Lal Chaudhary and there are six other claimants. The Reference Jetter
of the SLAO clearly shows that the appellant-Samiti was not a party to such
Reference. It is surprising as to how the learned Addi. District Judge could
seek a clarification on the basis of an application which was found on the file
and if such an application was made by any party, naturally there would have
H been a Reference under Section 18 of the Act and it would have been
...

PRAY AG UPNIVESH AWAS EVAMNIRMANSAHKARI SAMm Lm ..... ALLAHABAD VIK.AS PRADHIKARAN IBALAKRISHNAN. ll 571

specifically. mentioned in the Reference letter. It is equally surprising that A
even though the appellant was not a party to the reference case and was
allegedly not having knowledge of the proceedings, how and at whose instance
the clarification was sought by the Addi. District Judge. It is also pertinent
to note .that the clarification issued by the SLAO subsequent to the letter from
the Addi. District Judge, cannot be construed as Reference under Section 18 B
of the Act. The letter from SLAO reads as follows :

"This is with reference to your letter dated 11. 8. 1992 whereby you
have enquired as to whether in the reference forwarded on 12. 10.
1987 entitled as State Government vs. Shiv Narayan Chaudhary and
Ors., the reference of Prayag Upnivesh Sahkari Samiti, under Section C
30/18 was also made? In this connection it is submitted that in the file
of the office, the reference of Prayag Upnivesh Sahkari Samiti Ltd.,
is also attached. Probably, due to error in the previous reference letter
dated 12. 10. 1987 the same was not mentioned. "

The letter quoted above by itself is not sufficient to make it as a D
Reference purported to have been made under Section 18 of the Act. The
learned Addi. District Judge clearly erred in assuming that there was a
Reference under Section 18 of the Act. The subsequent impleadment of the
Samiti as a party to the Reference, which was pending under Section 30 of
the Ac.t, and the conversion of the same also as a Reference under Section
18, were illegal and has rightly been quashed by the High Court. E
It is well established that the reference court gets jurisdiction only ifthe
matter is referred to it under Section 18 or 30 of the Act by the Land
Acquisition Officer and that civil court has got the jurisdiction and authority
only to decide the objections referred to it. The reference court cannot widen
the scope of its jurisdiction or decide matters which are not referred to it. F
This question was considered by various judicial authorities and one of the
earliest decisions reported on this point is Pramatha Nath Mullick Bahadur
v. Secy of State, AIR (1930) PC 64. This was a case where the claimant
sought a Reference under Section 18 of the Act. In the application filed by
the claimant, he raised objection only regarding the valuation of the land. G
The claimant did not dispute the measurements of the land given in the
award. Before the reference court, the claimant raised objection regarding the
measurements of the land and sought for fresh measurements. This was refused
and the claimant applied to the High Court for revision of this order, but
without success. Again, in the appeal, the claimant raised the same objection
regarding measurements and the High Court rejected it. The Judicial Committee H
....

572 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2003) 3 S.C.R.

A of the Privy Council held thus :
"Their Lordships have no doubt that the jurisdiction of the Courts
under this Act is a special one and is strictly limited by the terms of
these sections. It only arises when a specific objection has been taken
to the Collector's award, and it is confined to a consideration of that
B objection. Once therefore it is ascertained that the only objection
taken is to the amount of compensation, that alone is the "matter"
referred, and the Court has no power to determine or consider anything
beyond it."

In another case, namely, Mohammed Hasnuddin v. State ofMaharashtra,
C [1979] 2 SCC 572, this Court observed :
"Every tribunal of limited jurisdiction is not only entitled but
bound to determine whether the matter in which it is asked to exercise
its jurisdiction comes within the limits of its special jurisdiction and
whether the jurisdiction of such tribunal is dependent on the existence
D of certain facts or circumstances. Its obvious duty is to see that these
facts and circumstances exist to invest it with jurisdiction, and whereas
tribunal derives its jurisdiction from the statute that creates it and that
statute also defines the conditions under which the tribunal can
function, it goes without saying that before that tribunal assumes
E jurisdiction in a matter, it must be satisfied that the conditions requisite
for its acquiring seisin of that matter have in fact arisen. As observed
by the Privy Council in Nusserwanjee Pestonjee v. Meer Mynoodeen
Khan wherever jurisdiction is given to a court by an Act of Parliament
and such jurisdiction is only given upon certain specified terms
contained in that Act, it is a universal principle that these terms must
F be complied with, in order to create and raise the jurisdiction for if
they be not complied with the jurisdiction does not arise. "

In K. Kankara1hanamma and Ors. v. State of Andhra Pradesh and
Ors., [1964] 6 SCR 294, the Land Acquisition Officer made a reference
G under Section 30 for the apportionment of the compensation amount amongst
the various claimants. Six of the appellants did not accept the award of the
Land Acquisition Officer and made application to him for referring the matter
for determination by the court, but no reference was made by him pursuant
to this application. When the matter came up before the court, it proceeded
on the footing that the reference made to it was not merely limited to the
H apportionment of compensation but also with respect to the amount of
PRA YAG UPNIVESH AWAS EV AM NIRMAN SAHKMI SAMITJ LTO. 1·. ALLAH.'\BAD VIKAS PRADlilKARAN [BALAKRISHNAN. J.I 573

. compensation. No objection, however, was raised by the State before the A
i reference court regarding the absence of reference. When the matter came up
before the High Court, the Govt. Pleader raised this objection. Though the
High Court allowed the plea to be raised before it, but ultimately it negatived
the plea. The appellants contended before the High Court that pursuant to the
failure of the State to raise the plea before the Subordinate Judge as to the B
absence of a reference, the State must be deemed to have waived the point.
Rejecting this contention, this Court held :

" ...... the matter goes to the court only upon a reference made by
the Collector. It is only after such a reference is made that the court
is empowered to determine the objections made by a claimant to the C
award. Section 21 restricts the scope of the proceedings before the
court to consideration of the contentions of the persons affected by
the objection. These provisions thus leave no doubt that the jurisdiction
of the court arises. solely on the basis of a reference made to it. No
doubt, the Land Acquisition Officer has made a reference under s. 30
of the Land Acquisition Act but that reference was only in regard to D
the apportionment of the compensation amongst the various claimants.
Such a reference would certainly not invest the court with the
jurisdiction to cor:sider. a matter not directly connected with it. This
is really not a mere technicality for as pointed out by the Privy Council
in Nusserwanjee Pestonjee and Ors. V. Meer A1ynoodeen Khan Wullud E
Meer Sudroodeen Khan Bahadoor wherever jurisdiction is given by
a statute and such jurisdiction is only given upon certain specified
terms contained therein it is a universal principle that those terms
should be complied with, in order to create and raise the jurisdiction,
and if they are not complied with, the jurisdiction does not arise. This
was, therefore, a case of lack of inherent jurisdiction and the failure F
of the State to object to the proceedings before the court on the
ground of an absence of reference in so far as the determination of
compensation was concerned cannot amount to waiver or acquiescence.
Indeed, when there is an absence of inherent jurisdiction, the defect
cannot be waived nor can be cured by acquiescence. "
G
In a recent decision of this Court in Ajjam linganna v. land Acquisition
Officer, (2002] 9 SCC 426, it was held that the Reference court has no power
to convert the Reference under Section 30 into one under Section 18 of the
Act at the instance of those who did not apply for reference earlier.
H
574 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [2003] 3 S.C.R.

A In the instant case, there was no Reference by the SLAO under Section
18 of the Act and the appellant-Samiti was not before the SLAO. Even the
application allegedly filed on 12. 10. 1987 has rightly been characterized as
suspicious as no mention has been made by the SLAO in the Reference letter
dated 12. 10. 1987. In the absence of a proper Reference, the Additional
B District Judge had no jurisdiction to decide the question of enhancement of
compensation. When such an objection was not referred to the court, there
was complete lack of jurisdiction. In our view, the decision of the Hig~ Court
is correct and requires no interference. The appeal is without merits and is
accordingly dismissed with costs.

C S.K.S. Appeal dismissed.