The main legal point established in the judgment is that the acquisition of lands for housing schemes must be bona fide and not for enabling individuals to indulge in the sale of sites for profits.

( 1 ) AS all these appeals involve the same question of law and similar facts, they are being disposed of by this common judgment.

( 2 ) RELEVANT facts have been extracted from W. A. No. 506 of 1996 arising out of W. P. No. 8194 of 1987. The writ petitioner in that case had challenged the acquisition made by the State Government under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short the 'act') insofar as it related to her property. Similarly, in other writ petitions the respondents herein had challenged the acquisition with respect to the lands belonging to them. One of the grounds urged by the writ petitioners was that the appellant-Society had acquired vast extent of land, which did not serve any public purpose and that the office bearers of the appellant-Society were making huge profits at the expense of the writ petitioners and others similarly situated. The lands, the subject-matter of the present litigation, had been acquired under the Act vide final notification issued on 21st of February, 1986. Such an acquisition was challenged in various writ petitions including W. P. Nos. 17775 and 17776 of 1982, wherein it was alleged that the lands had not been acquired for the purpose of allotment of sites, but for the purpose of indulging in big commercial venture of sale of sites; the Societies were alleged to have entered into agreements with builders and contractors and had enrolled large number of bogus members and associate members for achieving illegitimate object. It was further contended that the decision of the State Government to accord previous approval and sanction for acquisition of the lands was contrary to law being the result of non-consideration of the relevant factors. The aforesaid acquisition was termed to be a case of a colourable exercise of power.

( 3 ) IT may be noticed that the constitution, business and management of the appellant-Society had been the subject-matter of enquiry before the Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies. This court considered the Report of the Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies in the case of narayana Reddy and Another v State of Karnataka and Others. After consideration of the aforesaid Report and various decisions with reference to each of the case, this Court concluded in that case as under:

"as seen from the findings of G. V. K. Rao Inquiry Report, in respect of five respondent-Societies and the report of the Joint Registrar in respect of Vyalikaval House Building Co-operative society, these Societies had indulged in enrolling large number of members illegally inclusive of ineligible members and had also indulged in enrolling large number of bogus members. The only inference that is possible from this is that the office bearers of the Societies had entered into unholy alliance with the respective agents for the purpose of making money, as submitted for the petitioners. Otherwise, there is no reason as to why such an agreement should have been brought about by the office bearers of the Society and the agents. Unless these persons had the intention of making huge profits as alleged by the petitioners, they would not have indulged in enrolment of ineligible and bogus members. The circumstance that without considering all these relevant materials the Government had accorded its approval, is sufficient to hold that the agents had prevailed upon the Government to take a decision to acquire the lands without going into all those relevant facts. The irresistable inference flowing from the facts and circumstances of these cases is, whereas the power conferred under the Land Acquisition Act is for acquiring lands for carrying out housing scheme by a housing society, in each of the cases the acquisition of lands is not for a bona fide housing scheme but is substantially for the purpose of enabling the concerned office bearers of respondent-societies and their agents to indulge in sale of sites in the guise of allotment of sites to the Members/associate Members of th