JUDGMENT

B. N. KIRPAL, J. - Leave granted.

2. The short facts leading to these appeals are as under :

For the Rocket Launching Station located at Sriharikota of Indian Space Research Organisation, Department of Space, Government of India, an area of about 37,792 acres of land was acquired sometime in 1970s. Consequent to the expansion of space programmes certain additional lands at the southern tip of Sriharikota Island in the Marimanal village in Pooneri Taluka Chengai Anna District, Tamil Nadu, were acquired. The extent of these lands, with which we are concerned, was about 5394 acres.

3. For the purpose of acquiring the aforesaid lands, the Department of Space, Government of India approached the State of Tamil Nadu. This was done pursuant to the Notification No. 4(1) /65 dated 23-4-1966 which had been issued under Article 258(1) of the Constitution of India whereby President of India had entrusted to the Government of Tamil Nadu, with their consent, the functions of the Central Government under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 in relation to acquisition of lands for the purpose of the Union in the said State. Accordingly, notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) was issued by the Governor of Tamil Nadu on 3-11-1982.

4. Pursuant to the issuance of the aforesaid notification under Section 4 of the Act, further proceedings were taken and the Land Acquisition Officers awarded Rs. 10 per cent of land as compensation apart from the compensation for standing trees, crops etc. Dissatisfied with the award, the landowners filed application requiring reference under Section 18 of the Act. The said references were heard by the subordinate court at Tiruvallur and the amount of compensation was substantially increased and it ranged from Rs. 100 to Rs. 180 per cent of land.

5. Against the aforesaid judgment of the subordinate court dated 31-1-1986, enhancing the compensation, the Special Tehsildar filed appeals in the High Court of Madras. The High Court by an interim order directed the entire enchanced award amounts to be deposited in the court within 12 weeks and if the amount was not to be deposited, then the stay was to be automatically vacated.

6. Inasmuch as the lands were acquired by the Union of India and the compensation to be paid was to be borne by the Department of Space, the State Revenue Authorities urged the Space Department to deposit the enhanced compensation amounts in the Court. Thereupon the Department of Space filed Writ Petitions Nos. 1824-34 of 1988, 2347-2359 of 1988 in the High Court of Madras praying that the Department should be impleaded as a party in the aforesaid appeals which had been filed by the Land Revenue Authorities and there should be a stay with regard to the direction which had been issued requiring the deposit of the enhanced amount. These writ petitions were admitted and interim orders were passed staying the operation of the awards/decrees of enhanced compensation which had been passed.

7. The aforesaid writ petitions, along with a number of similar petitions filed by other Central Government Departments and organisations were heard by the High Court and the impugned judgment and order dated 28-4-1989, the High Court held that the Requisitioning Department in land acquisition cases could not be considered an interested party in the cases and, therefore, should not be impleaded as a party. Challenging the aforesaid decision, it has been contended on behalf of the appellants that in view of the decision of the Constitution Bench in U.P. Awas Evam Vikas Parishad v. Gyan Devi [(1995) 2 SCC 326] the appellants should have been impleaded as a party because the acquisition proceedings had taken place at the expense and for the benefit of the appellants. It was also submitted by the learned counsel for the appellants that in Union of India v. Sher Singh [(1993) 1 SCC 608] land had been acquired for the purpose of Union of India which had moved an applica