Naresh Kumar & Ors. vs. Govt. of NCT of Delhi – Civil Appeal No. 6637 of 2010 – 17th October 2019 – 3 Judge Bench.
The Supreme Court affirmed the legal position that in the absence of any statutory provision providing for review, entertaining an application for review or under the grab of clarification/modification/correction is not permissible.
The bench comprising Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Vineet Saran and Justice S.Ravindra Bhat held that collector could not review the award passed under section 11 of the Land Acqisition Act, 1894.
The question of law settled in this case (Naresh Kumar & ors. v. Govt. of NCT of Delhi) is Whether under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 after passing of the Award under Section 11 of the Act, the Award could be reviewed under any of the Provisions of the Act, specially under Section 13A of the Act.
The apex court clarified that
“There is no provision under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 for review of the Award once passed under section 11 of the Act and had attained Finality. The Only provision is for Correction of Clerical errors in the Award which is provided for under Section 13A of the Act, Which was inserted with effect from 24.09.1984”
The court observed that a bare reading of the said Section 13A would make it clear that the same is not a provision for Review of the Award but only for correction of clerical or arithmetical mistakes in the Award. It is further provided in the subSection (1) of Section 13A that the said correction can be made at any time, but not later than six months from the date of award.
It further observed that Collector don’t have authority to pass an order under reviewing Award under the said Act. It also said that the date of review clearly passed beyond Six months from the date of Award.
“In our considered view, the Review Award could not have been passed under Section 13A of the Act, which is meant only for correction of any clerical or arithmetical mistake. There is no other provision in the Act under which the said order dated 14.07.2004 could have been passed.” Naresh-kumar-v.-Govt.-of-NCT-of-DelhiDownload
