ASHOKKUMAR GORDHANBHAI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) these Special Civil Applications belong to a group of 21 petitions which arise out of sand acquisition Proceedings taken by the State at various Places after declaring that the respective lands are needed to be acquired at the public expense for the purpose generally speaking for establishing industrial township or estate for heavy and medium or light industries. As some common on questions of law and even to some extent of facts arise we have heard all these petitions together. All the same we have thought it expedient not to dispose them of by a single judgment. But out of these seven petitions refer to lands at Karamsad in Anand Taluka which are sought to be acquired by the same notifications under secs. 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act thereafter referred to as the Act) and therefore it will be convenient to dispose them of together by this judgment. We shall also dispose of Special civil Applications No. 43 of 1965 and 1023 of 1967 wherein the lands concerned are of village Odhav City Taluka Ahmedabad by this judgment because the contentions raised therein are mostly the same as in the petitions relating to lands at Karamsad. We will be stating necessary relative facts of all these petitions and will also deal with special points if any raised in the respective petitions over and above the common points.

(2.) In Special Civil Application No. 903 of 1964 the petitioner and the third respondent are owners of land bearing S. No 778 of village Karamsad admeasuring about 3 Acres 5 Gunthas. They had purchased the land on 27th July 1960 with a view to construct a factory thereon for curing tobacco. An application was made by them on August 17 1962 for permission to use the land for non-agricultural purposes. However the Government of Gujarat in the meantime issued a notification dated 27 August 1962 under sec. 4 of the Act which was published in the Gujarat Government Gazette Part I Supplement dated September 20 1962 By the said notification it was notified that the said land was likely to be needed for the purpose of the Charotar Gramodhdhar Sahakari Mandali Ltd. On the 19th of November 1962 the Prant Officer refused the permission to the petitioners to put land under non-agricultural use in view of the above notification under sec. 4 of the Act. Thereafter the Government issued a notification dated 26th July 1963 published on the 1st August 1963 whereby the prior notification was cancelled. On the 26th of July 1963 Government issued another notification under sec. 4 of the Act notifying that the said land inter a was likely to be needed for the public purpose Viz. for establishing industrial township for heavy and light industries. After the objections were filed and heard the Government issued a notification under sec. 6 of the Act which was published on 29th October 1964 stating inter alia that the Government of Gujarat was satisfied after considering the report of the Collector under sub-sec. (2) of sec. 5A of the said Act that the said lands were needed to be acquired at the public expenSe for public purpose viz for establishing industrial township for heavy and light industries and declaring under the provisions of sec. 6 of the Act that the said lands were needed for a public purpose or for a company as specified in column 4 of the schedule to the said notification By the said notification urgency clause was also applied. There are further averments of facts in the petition but we need not state them here as they have not any bearing on the points raised before us at the hearing for our consideration. But a set of facts which need be noted as they have a bearing on the controversy between the parties is that before sec. 6 notification was issued Government had published two important resolutions declaring its general policy in respect of the acquisitions made for the purpose of establishing the industrial township for heavy and light or medium industries. The first is dated 30th June 1964 copy whereof is produced. The only thing at this stage that need be mentioned is that the said resolution is purported to have been published after reading letters dated 19th February 1964 and the 6th of May 1964 from the Chief Executive Officer Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation Ahmedabad. By the said resolution the Government accepted in principle the proposal of the Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (hereafter referred to as the Corporation) to acquire lands for implementation of the scheme of acquisition of land for Industrial Areas and satellite Townships by Government from public revenues and then to place the lands so acquired at the disposal of the Corporation under see. 32 of the Gujarat Industrial Development Act 1962 (hereafter referred to as the Development Act).

(3.) The second resolution is dated 19th August 1964. It also is preceded by the statement that the two letters of the Corporation dated 19 February 1964 and 6th May 1964 were read. The resolution then says that the Government directs that the lands acquired by the Government at public expense shall be placed at the disposal of the Corporation under sec. 32 read with sec. 13(2)(g) of the Development Act on certain conditions. At this stage it will be sufficient to refer to only the first two of them and they are.