( 1 ) THIS Revision Application raises a short but interesting question of law namely whether a Reference under sec 18 of the Land Acquisition Act abates if the applicant dies and his heirs do not make an application for bringing themselves on record within a period of 90 days from the date of the death of the applicant. The dispute in this Revision Application concerns land bearing Survey No. 56b-1/1 admeasuring 1 acre 25. 12 gunthas situate in Dohad in the Panchmahals District. The land belonged to three brothers namely Abbasbhai Hatimbhai and Taherbhai each having 1/3 share in the land. In or about 1956 the land was acquired by the State Government under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act for the purpose of State Transport Corporation and after going through the procedure prescribed by law the Collector Panchmahals District made an award dated 23rd September 1957 offering compensation at the rate of Rs 2. 62 np. per square yard for the land. All the three brothers were dissatisfied with the offer contained in the award of the Collector and therefore two of them namely Hatimbhai and Taherbhai made a joint application and Abbasbhai the third brother made a separate application to the Collector for a reference under sec. 18 of the Land Acquisition Act. Hatimbhai and Taherbhai claimed compensation at the rate of Rs. 12/per square yard while Abbasbhai claimed compensation at the rate of Rs. 14-62 np. per square yard. On the application of Abbasbhai a reference was made by the Collector to the District Court on 26th September 1957 and it was numbered Ref. LAR. 9/57 while the reference made on the application of Hatimbhai and Taherbhai was numbered Ref. LAR. 11/57. Both the references were sent by the District Court to the Court of the Civil Judge Senior Division for disposal. The notice of the date fixed for the hearing of Ref. LAR. 9/57 was thereafter issued by the learned Civil Judge for service on Abbasbhai but before it could be served on Abbasbhai died as a result of an accident on 10th October 1957 with the result that it was returned unserved by the Bailiff on 27th November 1957. The petitioners who are the heirs and legal representatives of Abbasbhai thereupon addressed a letter dated 2 January 1957 to the Collector requesting the Collector to bring the names of the petitioners on record as heirs and legal representatives of Abbasbhai in Ref. LAR. 9/57. To this letter according to the petitioners there was no reply and the petitioners therefore did nothing further in the matter until 11th August 1960 when they came to know for the first time on reading the report in the daily newspaper Navbharat that Ref. LAR. 11/57 was disposed of by the learned Civil Judge and additional compensation of Rs. 9. 38 per square yard was awarded to each of Hatimbhai and Taherbhai. On learning about the disposal of Ref. LAR. 11/57 the petitioners made inquiries as to what had happened to Ref. LAR. 9/57 made at the instance of Abbasbhai and on making inquiries they learned that in Ref. LAR. 9/57 the Collector had made an application dated 12th January 1960 that the Reference had abated since no application to bring the heirs and legal representatives of Abbasbhai on record had been made within a period of 90 days from the date of death of Abbasbhai and on such application the learned Civil Judge had made an order dated 30th July 1960 dismissing the reference as having abated. The petitioners thereupon made an application to the Court for setting aside the abatement and there were two grounds on which the application was supported. The first ground was that the order dismissing the Reference as having abated was illegal and invalid since a reference under sec. 18 of the Land Acquisition Act could not abate on the death of the applicant even if no application to bring the heirs of the applicant on record was made within a period of 90 days from the date of death of the applicant and the second ground was that in any eve