Judgement

MATHEW J. :- Civil Appeals Nos. 1700 and 1827 of 1973.

We take up for consideration Civil Appeal No. 1827 of 1973. The respondents are the owners of the lands in question. They were sought to be acquired for the Regional Engineering College at the instance of the Education Department of the State of Mysore. In a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (hereinafter called the Act ) dated 5-1-1960 and published in the Mysore Gazette dated 5-5-1960, it was stated that in view of the urgency of the case, the provisions of Section 5-A of the Act shall not apply to the case. The respondents challenged the notification in a writ petition (No. 768 of 1960): When the writ petition came up for final disposal, a memo was produced on behalf of the State Government and the Court, on the basis of the Memo: dismissed the writ petition. The memo was to this effect :

"The respondent agrees to modify the impugned notification issued under Section 4 (1) read with Section 17 of the Land Acquisition Act and to give an opportunity to the petitioner of being heard under Section 5-A of the Act. Hence the relief sought for by the petitioner becomes unnecessary.

" The Special Land Ac