ASHRAF ALI Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition, acquisition of land situate in village Chandpur, for which a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (hereinafter called the Act) was issued on May 27, 1971, has been challenged.

(2.) According to the learned counsel for the petitioner, mandatory provisions of Section 4 of the Act have not been observed inasmuch as the substance of the notification has not been published in the locality. In the return filed on behalf of the State of Haryana, it has been mentioned that a copy of the notification was sent to the Patwari for proper publication. However, the Patwari on account of some inadvertent mistake failed to have suitable publication made about the acquisition of Khasra No. 14/23. In Gurdit Singh etc. v. State of Punjab, 1971 CurLJ 768, R.S. Sarkaria, J., held that if no notice by publishing the substance of the notification in the locality is given, the notification issued under Section 4 of the Act and the subsequent acquisition proceedings are rendered void. The question which arises for consideration is that because of the non publication of one Khasra number whether the entire notification would be struck down or not. Requirement of Section 4 of the Act is that public notice of the substance of the notification has to be given at convenient places in the locality. The Khasra numbers of the land sought to be acquired are the most important part of the notification. If no notice about the Khasra numbers is given, then it must be held that no proper public notice as required by Section 4 of the Act has been given. Such a notification cannot be allowed to stand in part and has to be set aside as a whole.

(3.) For the reasons mentioned above, I allow this petition and set aside the impugned notification dated May 27, 1971, but in the circumstances make no order as to costs.