1. About 114 years after the enactment of a law which is very commonly enforced and consequently very often analyzed-reanalyzed as also interpreted-reinterpreted by various Courts in the country, including the Supreme Court, in this group of matters, we have an occasion, for the first time since its enactment, to interpret the provisions of section 7 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1884 (hereinafter referred to as the “said Act”) as also pronounce upon the true and correct scope thereof. In the submission of the learned counsels appearing on behalf of all the parties in this group of matters, neither any High Court nor the Supreme Court previously had an occasion to deal with such an issue.

2. The respondent herein, the Municipal Corporation of the city of Pune (hereinafter referred as the “said Corporation” for the sake of brevity) established under the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation Act 1949 (Hereinafter referred to as ‘the BPMC Act’ for the sake of brevity) is said to have decided to set up what is titled as “Forest Garden” (in local language Marathi -“ou&m|ku”), comprising of 50 hectares of land, situate at Pachgaon, Mauze Parvati Pune. An award under section 1