HC stays warrant of attachment order

Vijay Arora

Legal Correspondent

Shimla, April 29

In a major relief to the Indian Railways, the HP High Court today stayed the attachment order of the property of Una Railway Station passed by the Additional District Judge (ADJ) Una in a land compensation case.

While passing this order, Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan observed: “It is made clear that the attachment orders, if any, issued by the executing court shall be kept in abeyance and even if given effect to, they will stand superseded by this order.”

The court directed the Registrar (Judicial) to communicate this order to the court concerned. The court also directed the executing court to remove the seals so put in the premises forthwith and to further ensure that there is free ingress and egress to passengers and also to ensure that the trains as scheduled are permitted to pass through the railway station without any let or hindrance.

During the course of hearing it was informed to the court that pursuant to the warrants of attachment, the entire railway station, along with rooms, had been sealed.

The court passed this order on an application filed by the Railways for staying the operation and execution of the order passed by the Una court.

It was contended on behalf of the Railways that it had challenged the award passed in land-reference case decided on February 28, 2012, before the High Court and the enhanced amount of compensation as awarded by the court below with interest amounting to Rs 20,82,863/- had been deposited in the registry of this court.

The court observed: “Since the appeal already stands admitted and the interest of the claimant is adequately safeguarded by the deposit of the entire amount awarded along with the interest before this court I see no reason why the execution proceedings should be permitted to continue.”

The court also stayed the further proceedings in execution petition filed by the claimants before the Additional District Judge, Una.

The court of Additional District Judge passed the attachment order on the execution petition filed by the claimants alleging that the Railways had failed to pay compensation to them whose land had been acquired to build the Una-Chururu section of the Una-Talwara line in 1998.

The Railways had acquired prime, irrigated land in Chururu village in 1997-98, paying a compensation of Rs 5,500 to Rs 6,000 per kanal.

Claimants went to the court against this amount of compensation and in 2009, the Additional District Judge, Una, enhanced the compensation granted by the Land Acquisition Officer (LAO) of the Railways.

The Railways challenged the enhancement order before the High Court but in the meanwhile the claimants filed execution petition before the court of Additional District Judge, Una, for executing the order of enhancement passed by it.

On this petition the ADJ, Una, passed a warrant of attachment of the property of the Railways.