Indira Banerjee, J.

The petitioner Nos.1 to 16 are citizens of India and are doctors and officers associated with Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute. By eight (8) several registered deeds of Conveyance dated (i) 25th February, 1998 (ii) 22nd September, 1998 (iii) 23rd September, 1998 (iv) 24th November, 1998 (v) 30th December, 1998 (vi) 7th January, 1999 and (vii) 25th March, 1999 respectively, the petitioner Nos.1 to 16 purchased about 39 Cottahs of land at RS Dag No. 395, Mouza - Laskarhat.

2. The said land was originally owned by Panchu Mondal and Bholanath Mondal, both sons of Atul Chandra Mondal, in equal share and so recorded in the Record of Rights published under the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953. The said Panchu Mondal and Bholanath Mondal appear to have sold the land to the vendors of the petitioners sometime in 1960.

3. According to the petitioners, the petitioners had caused searches to be conducted and also enquiries to be made from the office of the Land Acquisition Collector, South 24 Parganas, before purchase of the said land. Such searches and/or enquiries revealed that the vendors of the petitioners had clear marketable title and that the land was not under requisition or acquisition. It was only thereafter, that the petitioners went ahead with purchase of the said land.

4. By a letter dated 11th August, 1998, the Land Acquisition Collector, South 24 Parganas informed the petitioners that RS Dag No. 395 and 400 (Part of Mouza - Laskarhat) had not been acquired by the Department as per its office records. This information was supplied prior to execution of six of the deeds of Conveyance as stated in Para 10 of the writ petition.

5. After the petitioner purchased the said land, the petitioners applied for mutation. The Block Land and Land Reforms Officer at Kasba, Kolkata, after enquiry, allowed mutation of the names of the petitioners as owners of the said land, in the relevant records of the Government and issued-Mutation Certificates each dated 4th November, 1999 under section 50 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955.

6. On 11th July, 2000, KMC (Kolkata Municipal Corporation) mutated the names of the petitioners in place of Panchu Mondal and Bholanath Mondal and started collecting taxes from the petitioners.' For amalgamation of the various plots, the petitioners had to give up 5 % of the total area of the land in favour of KMC.

7. Pursuant to the application made by the petitioners, the Additional District Magistrate being the respondent No. 11 issued Conversion Certificate to the petitioners for conversion of the land from agricultural land to residential land.

8. On 9th January, 2001, No Objection Certificate under the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 was issued by the Competent Authority in favour of the petitioners.

9. On 5th March, 2001, KMC requested KMDA (Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority) to approve and issue the requisite No Objection Certificate, after which the petitioners entered into a Development Agreement with respondent No.17 for construction of a building.

10. On 15th May, 2001 sanction of the municipal plan was recommended in favour of the petitioners. The petitioners thereafter obtained house building loans for construction from the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute. One such loan agreement has been annexed to the writ petition by way of sample.

11. The petitioners started building a boundary wall around the said land. On 31st July, 2001 KMDA demolished the boundary wall constructed by the Petitioners, whereupon the petitioners lodged a First Information Report. Even as late as on 11th December, 2001 the Competent Authority of KMDA in his letter to KMC referred to the petitioners as owners of the said land.

12. It was only much later, on 29th January, 2003, that a notice in relation to Case No.1 of 2003 was issued under section 50 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955, purportedly in pursuance of a declaration dated 10th November, 1956 publ