SANDAYA EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Vide CM Appl. 5607/2004 the applicant (who was the petitioner in W.P.(C)3596/1987) seeks review of the judgment dated 26 th March, 2004 on the limited ground. Other application is for interim stay. Before we advert to the ground on which review of the aforesaid judgment is sought, it would be appropriate to take into account the subject matter of the writ petition and the decision which was rendered thereupon.

(2.) The petitioners had filed the aforesaid writ petition with a prayer to quash the notification No. F.8(1)/80- l & b: (1) dated 22 nd December, 1987 issued under Section 4 read with Section 17 (1) and (4) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). They had also prayed for quashing the proceedings initiated pursuant to the aforesaid notification and to declare that the land of the petitioner no.1 Society cannot be acquired.

(3.) It was the case of the petitioners that the petitioner no.1 had purchased the said land on 19 th December, 1987 (mere three days before the issuance of impugned notification dated 22 nd December, 1987) admeasuring 4 bighas 3 biswa in Khasra No. 401 in village Ghonda Gujran Khadar on full payment of Rs. 1.50 lacs. It was averred in the petition that since the petitioner no.1 is an educational society, the aforesaid land was purchased for the educational purposes. The main ground on which the impugned notification and resultant proceedings were challenged was that the provisions of Section 5A of the Act was not applied thereby depriving the petitioners to file objections to the proposed acquisition. It was contended that there was no reason for invoking urgency provisions contained in Section 17 of the Act thereby giving a go by to the right conferred upon the petitioners under Section 5A of the Act. It was also contended that had the petitioner been given opportunity of being heard it would have pointed out that there was no "public purpose" behind the said acquisition.