(1.) these writ petitions are preferred against certain acquisition of lands made under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (in short "the l.a. act") for the Karnataka state judicial department employees' house building co-operative society limited, high court building, Bangalore. The first two of these writ petitions are filed styling to be public interest litigation by two practising advocates of this court and the third one is filed by an owner of a piece of land involved in the acquisition.
(2.) the facts leading to the filing of these writ petitions can'be stated thus the Karnataka state judicial department employees' house building co-operative society (in short "the society") was registered under the Karnataka Co-Operative Societies Act, 1959 on 11-8-1983. It seems the members of the society includes the members of the judicial department, members of the subordinate judiciary and also certain sitting, transferred and retired judges of this court. It seems the society originally made an agreement with individual owners for purchase of land, but ultimately it decided to request the government to initiate proceedings for acquiring the lands under the land acquisition act. Notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act was published in the gazettee on 18-2-1988. It was published in the local newspapers "sanjevani" and "samyukta karnataka" on 12-2-1988 and 13-2-1988. Public notice under Section 4(2) was published in the village chavadi on 14-3-1988. Declaration under Section 6 was published in the gazettee on 27-2-1989. declaration under Section 6 was published in the local news-papers "sanjevani" and "prajavani" was on 25-2-1989 and 1-3-1989. Publication in the village chavadi was done on 15-3-1989. Award came to be passed on 13-3-1991. Under this acquisition an extent of 159 acres 261/4 guntas of land in the village allalasandra were acquired.
(3.) subsequent to the formation of the society it seems the society entered into an agreement with one M/s. Devatha builders on 12-11-1986 long before the notification under section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act was published in the gazettee. it is also seen from the records that the government has approved the acquisition of the lands for the society on 30-8-1985. The Bangalore development authority (in short "bda") has approved the layout on 28-11-1992 and it seems the allotment of sites has been made by the society (1700 sites) on 4-1-1993. At this stage these writ petitions came to be filed before this court.