U P RESIDENTS EMPLOYEES CO OPERATIVE HOUSE BUILDING SOCIETY Vs. NEW OKHLA INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY POST OFFICE NOIDA GHAZIABAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) V. K. Khanna, J. This writ petition has been filed by petitioner No. 1, which happens to be a Housing Co-operative Society registered under the U. P. Co-operative Societies Act and also by other petitioners who happen to be its office-bearers. The petitioner-society was formed with the object of acquiring land for its members in order to build their own houses and to do incidental work in connection therewith. More than 60 acres of land situated in village Chhalera Bangar and Suthari were acquired by the Society between Jan. , 1973 to Sept. , 1975.

(2.) U. P. Industrial Area Development Act, 1976 was enacted for the constitution of an authority for the development of certain areas in the State into industrial and urban township and for matters connected therewith. The State of U. P. by a notification dated April 17, 1976 declared the area comprising the villages mentioned in the Schedule annexed to the notification to be an industrial development area within the meaning of the 1976 Act to be called "new Okhla Industrial Development Area (hereinafter referred to as the "noida" ). Soon after the constitution of the Noida Authority a notification under Sections 4 and 17 of the Land Acquisition Act was published in the U. P. Gazette extraordinary dated 30- 4-1976 stating that the land in village Chhalera Bangar was needed for the planned industrial development. The land of the petitioner-society was included in this notification (Annexure-3 to the writ petition ). Notification under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act was thereafter issued on 1-5-1976 (Annexure-4 to the writ petition ). In respect of the other land of the Society situated in village Suthari on 1st June, 1976 a notification under Section 4 was issued which was followed by a notification under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act on 16-9-1976 (Annexures-7 and 8 respectively to the writ petition ).

(3.) IN the present writ petition the petitioner has first challenged the notifications issued under Sections 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act contained in Annexures-3, 4, 7 and 8 to the writ petition. The learned counsel for the petitioner in connection with the challenge of the aforesaid notifications has only adopted the points which had been raised in Civil Misc. Writ No. 4220 of 1979, Kendriya Karamchari Sahkari Grih Nirman Samiti Limited Chhalera District Ghaziabad v. New Okhla INdustrial Development Authority (decided on Dec. 11, 1981)*. As has been observed above, all these notifications were published in the year 1976. The writ petition has been filed in the year 1980 i. e. more than 3 years after the publication of the notifications. The writ petition in so far as the aforesaid challenge is concerned suffers from the vice of laches. Moreover, the impugned notifications have been upheld by a Division Bench of this Court by a reasoned order. We agree with the reasoning given in the aforesaid decision and negative the contentions of the petitioners regarding the challenge to the aforesaid notifications on merits also. * Reported in 1983 UPLBEC 240.