India, Aug. 12 -- The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a bunch of pleas seeking computation of market value of the petitioners' lands under the Land Acquisition Act of 2013 instead of the 1894 law. The division bench of Justices Mahesh Chandra Tripathi and Kunal Ravi Singh observed that an award given as per the court's direction cannot be challenged. The petitioners -- Varanasi resident Vijay Kumar and 153 others -- had challenged the January 10, 2024 award announced by the special land acquisition officer under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, to acquire their lands in Bairwan village. The Varanasi Development Authority had initiated the land acquisition in 2000. In its order dated August 7, 2026, the division bench observed that the acquisition officer had announced the award in accordance with an earlier court direction and hence, no interference is required. Also Read - ABVP to launch nationwide agitation over Jharkhand students' issue Dismissing the writ petitions, the bench observed that an award made under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, in compliance with a judicial direction cannot be assailed on the ground that the market value ought to have been computed as on January 1, 2014, the date on which the new Land Acquisition Act of 2013 was enforced. Rejecting the plea, the court said, "The said ground was available to the petitioners in the earlier litigations also, but it was never raised. The present round of litigation is confined to the challenge to the award formulated as per the earlier directions of the court. "It has been held that the award was made as per the directions given. There is no need to examine any other ground as all the other grounds of challenge have already been negated by the court in the earlier round of litigation," the judgment said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.