JUDGMENT - H.W. DHABE, J.:---All these writ petitions are connected writ petitions and can conveniently be disposed of by this common judgment. Since the subject matter of all these writ petitions relates to the acquisition of land of the petitioners for approach lights for night landing of the aeroplanes at the Airport at Aurangabad, an urgent hearing was pressed in these writ petitions by the respondents as there was an interim stay precluding them from taking any further proceedings in this matter. We have therefore, heard the learned Counsel for the parties at length at the stage of notice before admission and are, therefore, disposing of these writ petitions finally. We thus issue rule in these writ petitions which are heard forthwith.

2. Briefly, the facts are that originally the Notification under section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, "the Act") was issued by the respondent No. 5 i.e. the Special Land Acquisition Officer on 19-11-1987, published in the Govt. Gazette on 28-1-1988, for acquisition of 4 hectares 95 acres of land from the field survey No. 23/2 of village Murtizapur belonging to the petitioners in these writ petitions. After the personal notice was received by the petitioners on 1-2-1988, they raised objections under section 5-A of the Act on 10-2-1988 to the acquisition of their land. However, the land acquisition proceedings pursuant to the aforesaid Notification under section 4(1) of the Act were thereafter abandoned since the Special Land Acquisition Officer had no power to issue the notification under section 4(1) of the Act in this matter as the land to be acquired was necessary for the purpose of the Union Government in regard to which it was the Divisional Commissioner who was delegated by the Central Government the power to issue the Notification under section 4(1) of the Act.

3. The Divisional Commissioner, i.e. the respondent No. 3, then issued the Notification under section 4(1) of the Act on 26-5-1988 published in the Maharashtra Government Gazette dt. 2-6-1988 in which the land of the petitioners, which was to be acquired for the aforesaid public purpose was 87 Acres from field survey No. 32/2 of village Murtizapur belonging to the petitioners. After the petitioner received personal notice of the intended acquisition as per the Notification dated 29-5-1988, they raised objections under section 5-A of the Act on 19-7-1988. They then received notice from the Special Land Acquisition Officer that the land acquisition case was fixed for hearing on 9-8-1988. However, according the petitioners, the Special Land Acquisition Officer was on leave on that date and therefore, the case was adjourned to 23-3-1988 in which date also, according to the petitioners, the Special Land Acquisition Officer, on 9-8-1988 the case adjourned to 26-8-1988. Be that as it may, on 26-6-1988, the petitioners made application before the Special Land Acquisition Officer in which they claimed that they should be allowed hearing by the Divisional Commissioner. It is the case of the petitioners that no hearing was granted to them in regard to their objections either by the Special Land Acquisition Officer or by the Divisional Commissioner which fact is disputed by the above officers.

4. The Special Land Acquisition Officer then sent his report to the Divisional Commissioner after the receipt of the Notification under section 6 of the Act was issued by the Divisional Commissioner on 8-9-1988 making a declaration that the land in question of the petitioners was required for a public purpose as shown in the Notification under section 4(1) of the Act and the same should be acquired by taking further proceedings under the Act. It may be seen that the notice under section 9 is thereafter received by the petitioners and the proceedings for determination of compensation have also commenced. When, however, their possession was threatened, the petitioners have filed the instant writ petitions on or about 27-2-1989 challe

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