(1.) Whether publication in the official gazette is the sine qua non of a notification envisaged under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 is the core question in this reference to the Full Bench.
(2.) The respondent-State of Punjab framed a draft notification on Feb. 28, 1980, for the purposes of the acquisition of land measuring 30 Kanals 13 marlas for the public purpose of the construction of a 130 K. V. sub-station at Bhogpur. It would appear that before the said draft notification could be published in the gazette, an entry was recorded in the roznamcha on Mar. 19, 1980 to the effect that publication by beat of drum had been done in the locality by the chaukidar that any owner having any objection with regard to the acquisition could file objections against the same within 30 days up to Mar. 29, 1980. (Sic) Latter, on Mar. 21, 1980, the notification was published in the official gazette wherein also it was directed that objections could be filed within 30 days of the publication of the said notification in writing before the Land Acquisition Collector of the State Electricity Board, Patiala.
(3.) The present writ petition was preferred to challenge the aforesaid acquisition primarily on the Around that there had been no public notice of the substance of the notification published in the gazette either simultaneously or thereafter, and indeed herein the admitted position being that the purported publication within the locality had been done two days prior to the date of the publication of the notification itself, namely; March 21, 1980. Since reliance an behalf of the petitioners was placed on an earlier judgment of this Court, the writ petition was admitted to hearing by the Division Bench.