Judgment

KULDIP SINGH, J.:- Leave granted in all the special leave petitions.

2. These appeals have arisen from land acquisition proceedings initiated by the State of Rajasthan under the Rajasthan Urban Improvement Act, 1959 (the Act). The acquisition proceedings were challenged by the appellants-land owners by way of writ petitions under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India before the Rajasthan High Court. A learned single Judge allowed the writ petitions on October 15, 1982 and quashed the proceedings. The appeals filed by the State of Rajasthan were, however, allowed by the Division Bench of the High Court on February 21, 1986 and the judgment of the learned single Judge was set aside. These appeals, by the land owners, are against the judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court.

3. The land is popularly known as Rambagh area and Princes House or Raj Mahal area. According to the appellants the lands were private properties of Maharaja of Jaipur. Gandhi Grah Nirman Sahkari Samiti (Samiti), the appellant, acquired the vacant parcels of the land situated in Rambagh Palace and in the compound of Raj Mahal comprising 3,49,000 sq. yards for a sum of Rs. 1,02,00,000/- by way of three deeds of conveyance executed on March 29, 1972 and registered on April 3, 1972.

4. After the purchase of the land, the Samiti prepared a development plan of the land according to which 500 residential plots of different sizes were to be developed on the land. The Samiti on June 24, 1972 submitted the development plan to the Urban Improvement Trust, Jaipur (the Trust) for sanction. The Trust raised objections and the matter was referred to the State Government. The State Government further raised objections and as such the matter remained under correspondence for quite some time.

5. On March 24, 1973 the State Government issued notice under Section 52(2) of the Act wherein the owners of the land and other interested persons were called upon to show cause as to why the land be not acquired. A separate notice dated March 26, 1973 was sent to the appellant-Bhawani Singh. Objections were filed by the Samiti as well as by Bhawani Singh. The Officer-on-Special Duty, Town Planning Department, Government of Rajasthan heard the objections and submitted his report dated April 2, 1974 for the consideration of the State Government. The State Government rejected the objections and issued two notifications dated July 11, 1974 under Section 52(1) of the Act which were published in the Rajasthan Gazette dated September 27, 1974. It was at that stage that the appellants challenged the acquisition by way of writ petitions before the High Court.

6. We may briefly notice the scheme of the Act. Section 2(l)(vi) defines the expression "improvement" as under:

"Improvement with its grammatical variations means the carrying out of building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land or the making of any material change in any building or land or making provision for any amenity in, on, over or under any building or land and includes reimprovement."

Chapter II deals with the preparation of master plan. The State Government finally approves the master plan which comes into operation from the date of its publication in the prescribed manner. Chapters III and IV of the Act deal with constitution of trusts and proceedings of the trusts/ committees. Chapter V deals with the framing of schemes by the trust. We may notice Section 29 therein which is as under:

"29. Schemes: matters to be provided therein.-(1) The Trust shall, on the orders of the State Government or on its own initiative or on a representation made by the Municipal Board and subject to availability of financial resources, frame schemes for the improvement of the urban area for which the Trust is constituted."

Sections 30 to 41A of Chapter V deal with the procedure for framing and sanction of the schemes. Chapter VI defines powers and duties of the Trust where a scheme has been sanctioned. Chapter V