ORDER

1. The appellant, who was serving as a Land Acquisition Officer, has been convicted and sentenced by the High Court of Rajasthan for contempt by directing that he suffer imprisonment for fifteen days. Even his prayer for suspension of the sentence to enable him to move this Court was rejected and he was directly sent to jail from the court premises itself. It is against that order that the said officer has filed this appeal. The abridged facts are as under.

2. In exercise of powers conferred by Section 4 of the Rajasthan Land Acquisition Act, 1953 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"), a notification was issued on 13-5-1960 for acquiring land belonging to a single Khatedar Chhotey Lal bearing Khasra Nos. 34 to 37 and 277 situate in Village Bhojpura, Tehsil Jaipur. So far as Khasra No. 35 is concerned, it admeasured 3 big has and 16 biswas but the acquisition was restricted to 6 biswas only. Thereafter, on 3-5-1961 a notification under Section 6 of the Act was issued in respect of the same area. This was followed by an award dated 9-1-1964. It appears that there was an agreement with Chhotey Lal for the acquisition of Khasra No. 35 and the possession of that land was subsequently taken on 29-6-1960. The compensation in respect of the entire Khasra No. 35 was, however, paid to Chhotey Lal. This is what the Zonal In-charge Commissioner, Jaipur Development Authority, Jaipur states in his counter-affidavit:

"The awardee Shri Chhotey Lal was Khatedar in respect of Khasra No. 277 Min and Khasra Nos. 34 to 38. It appears that inadvertently the entire area of Khasra No. 35 measuring 3 bighas and 16 biswas was not included in the notification under Section 4 dated 13-5-1960 and instead 6 biswas was only included. However, the award was published in respect of 3 bighas and 16 biswas of land of Khasra No. 35 on 9-1-1964. Shri Chhotey Lal neither objected to the land being acquired nor preferred any reference or appeal against the award dated 9-1-1964. In fact he accepted the entire amount of compensation in respect of Khasra No. 35 on 1-7-1970. The possession of the land was taken on 21-7-1971. The land thus vested in the State and the land acquisition proceedings stood completed."

It will, thus, be seen that the compensation in respect of the entire land bearing Khasra No. 35 was received by Chhotey Lal pursuant to the award.

3. There after, on 7-1-1971 a separate notification was issued under Section 4 of the Act in respect of the remaining area of Khasra No. 35, namely, 3 big has and 10 biswas, presumably because the omission of that area in the earlier two notifications came to light. Chhotey Lal was served with a notice in respect thereof on or about 29-5-1971. Nothing further transpired thereafter in pursuance of that notification except a report under Section 5-A of the Act. Thereafter, on 3-1-1989, pursuant to Section 11 -A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the State Act was amended and the same provision was added with effect from 3-1-1987. Chhotey Lal then filed a writ petition before the High Court complaining about forcible dispossession on 6-4-1992 and questioned the legality and validity of the notification by which 3 bighas and 10 biswas of Khasra No. 35 came to be acquired. The learned Single Judge of the High Court, by his order dated 15-3-1993, dismissed the petition against which Chhotey Lal preferred a letters patent appeal to the Division Bench of the High Court. The Division Bench of the High Court, by its order dated 12-5-1994, dismissed the appeal. Thereafter, the file in respect of the acquisition proceedings was put up before the appellant with an application submitted by one Babu Lal, stated to be the legal representative of Chhotey Lal, for cancellation of the acquisition proceedings initiated pursuant to the notification dated 7-1-1971. That application was heard by the appellant on 25-5-1994 and the appellant, after perusing the record and weighing the submissions made before him with reference to Section