Judgment :-

V.S. Sirpurkar, J.

Background of Appeals

1. This judgment will dispose of Civil Appeal Nos. 2650-2652 of 1998, 3162 of 1998, 3176 of 1998, 3415 of 1998, 3561 of 1998, 3597 of 1998, 3923 of 1998, 3939 of 1998, 3645 of 1998, 3691 of 1998, 5346 of 1998, 2116-2118 of 1999, 2139 of 1999, 2121 of 1999, 2113 of 1999, 4995-4996 of 1998 and SLP(C) No...(CC) 1540 of 1999. All these appeals and the Special Leave Petition challenge a common judgment passed by Allahabad High Court, disposing of several Writ Petitions. The High Court has granted certificate granting leave to file appeal. These Writ Petitions were filed covering various subjects. Basically, in some of the Writ Petitions, constitutionality of provisions of Sections 17(1), 17(1)(A), 17(3)(A), 17(4) and proviso to Section 17(4) of the Land Acquisition Act (hereinafter referred to as `the Act for short) alongwith Section 2 of the

U.P. Act No. VIII of 1994 (hereinafter called `the Validating Act for short) was challenged, so also constitutionality of Sections 3(A), 3(B), 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the Act was also challenged. In that set of Writ Petitions, basically, the notification issued under Section 4(1) of the Act and the a