HARBANS KAUR ETC. Vs. LUDHIANA IMPROVEMENT TRUST ETC.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE ten writ petitions (C.W. Nos. 3229 of 1969, 2, 3, 552, 553, 669, 1475, 1476, 1477 and 1478 of 1970), came up for hearing before a Division Bench, along with, two other writ petitions (C.W. Nos. 331 and 347 of 1970), which have since been dismissed as withdrawn, and by order dated March 25, 1971, were referred to a Full Bench for decision on two common questions of law involved in these petitions with the observations that after those matters are settled by a larger Bench, the cases will go back to a learned Single Judge for decision on other subsidiary points.

(2.) THE facts of C.W. 3229 of 1969, may be noticed in order to appreciate and decide the points of law which have been referred to this Bench for decision.

(3.) FROM the above facts, it is clear that although the notice under Section 36 was issued on March 6, 1961, the first notification under Section 42 was issued on February 11, 1969, that is, after the expiry of nearly eight years. The acquisition of properties under the Act has to be in accordance with the procedure prescribed in the Land Acquisition Act, I of 1894, as is clear from Section 59 of the Act and the Schedule thereto. In the Schedule to the Act, modifications to the various sections of the Land Acquisition Act have been made for the purposes of the Act. In the wake of a judgment of their Lordships of the Supreme Court in; The State of Madhya Pradesh and Ors. v. Vishnu Prasad Sharma and Ors., A.I.R. 1966 S.C. 1598, the Union Government issued the Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Ordinance, 1967, which was later enacted into the Land Acquisition (Amendment and Validation) Act, 13 of 1967, which, inter alia, amended Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, so as to read as under: