( 1 ) THE facts in each of these ten writ petitions are substantially similar, and the question which falls for decision is also common. Therefore, all these writ petitions were clubbed and heard together, and they are being disposed of by this common judgment.

( 2 ) THE private respondents in each of the writ petitions claim to be tribals and owners and occupiers of certain lands which are the subject matters of these writ petitions and situate in the Agency tracts of Adilabad District. The petitioners also claim to be the owners and occupiers of the same lands. Thus, there is a serious title dispute between the petitioners and the contesting private respondents over the lands. When the matters stood thus, the Government of Andhra Pradcsh initiated the proceedings under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, for short the Act , to acquire these lands for the public purpose, for submergence under the Vatti-Vagu Project by issuing Section 4 (1) Notification and invoking the special power of urgency under sub-sections (4) and (5) of Section 17 of the Act in the year 1996. Declaration under Section 6 was also made in the year 1996 itself. Eighty per cent of