Judgment

S.N. Variava, J.—Leave granted.

Heard parties.

2. This Appeal has been filed against the Judgment dated 21/22 August, 2003 passed by the High Court of Delhi.

3. Briefly stated the facts as follows:

On 13th November, 1959 a Notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act was issued for acquisition of app. 35,000 acres of land. The said acquisition was for “planned development of Delhi”. Amongst the lands, sought to be acquired, were Appellants’ land of app. 68 acres. Clause 2(d) of the said Notification exempted lands of “Religious Institutions”.

4. This acquisition was challenged by a number of parties including the Appellants. The Writ Petition filed by the Appellants was allowed by a Single Judge of the Delhi High Court on the ground that the Appellants were not heard in respect of their objections filed under Section 5A of the Land Acquisition Act. A Division Bench of the Delhi High Court allowed the Appeal and dismissed the Writ Petition. The Appeal filed by the Appellants in this Court was allowed by the Judgment reported in Shri Mandir Sita Ramji vs. Lt. Governor of Delhi & Ors. (1975) 1 SCR 597. This Court held that there had been no enquiry as to whether or not the Appellants’ land belonged to a religious institution. Therefore, this Court quashed the Section 6 Notification and remitted the matter back to the Land Acquisition Collector to enquire into the objection of the Appellants.

5. It appears that the Government then decided not to pursue the earlier Section 4 Notification in respect of the Appellants’ land. Another Notification dated 13th March, 1975 under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, proposing to acquire app. 300 bighas for “planned development of Delhi” was issued. The Appellants again challenged the proposed acquisition by filing a Writ Petition. The Writ Petition was dismissed by the impugned order.

6. On behalf of the Respondents, it has been submitted that the Appellants are not entitled to maintain this Appeal as they have already sold off the land to a third party. It is submitted that the Appellants no longer have any right, title or interest in the said land. This has been denied by the Appellants who claim that they have only entered into a development agreement. In our view, it is not necessary for us to go into this controversy. It is preferable to decide the challenge to the acquisition proceedings on their own merits. We have, therefore, left this question open and heard the parties on the challenge to the acquisition.

7. On behalf of the Appellants, it was submitted that the acquisition is not for “planned development of Delhi”. It was submitted that on 9th May, 1972 an Agreement has been entered into between the President of India on one hand and the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Cooperative Housing Building Societies on the other. It is submitted that the Agreement is to allot to this Cooperative Society app. 217 bighas and 8 biswas of land. It is submitted that this is the land of the Appellants. It is submitted that in pursuance of this Agreement a sum of Rs. 26,37,245 has been received from the society. It is submitted that the acquisition is actually for the society yet it purports to show as if it is for “Planned development of Delhi”. It is submitted that as the acquisition is for a cooperative society, the provisions of Part VII of the Land Acquisition Act and particularly Sections 39, 40 and 41 should have been complied with. It is submitted that those provisions have not been complied with and therefore the acquisition is bad and should be set aside.

8. On the other, on behalf of the Respondents it is submitted that the acquisition was effectively of 35000 acres of land in pursuance of Notification under Section 4 issued in 1959. It was submitted that because of the orders of this Court, the Appellants’ land got excluded from the earlier Notification. It was submitted that land all around Appellants’ land was acquired in pursuance of the earlier Notification. It wa