( 1 ) THE petitioners herein claiming to be the owners of the lands situated in the sim of village Kanthravi, Taluka Patan, Dist. Patan, have filed this Special Civil Application with the prayer that the respondents be directed to declare the award on the application filed by the petitioners under Sec. 28-A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 and make payment of compensation of the award amount to the petitioners immediately.

( 2 ) THE lands of the petitioners were sought to be acquired for the purpose of Manud-Kanthravi road project. In the Land Acquisition Case No. 74 of 1983, the Special Land Acquisition Officer No. 2, Mehsana passed an order on 21st May 1988 acquiring the lands in question and also ordered for award of the compensation. The petitioners herein did not prefer any application for reference under Sec. 18 but other land owners whose lands had also been acquired under the same notification in the same land acquisition proceedings, preferred applications seeking reference under Sec. 18 of the Land Acquisition Act. The Land Acquisition Reference Cases Nos. 1076 to 1095 of 1988 had been decided by the Reference Court, i. e. 2nd Jt. District Judge, Mehsana, who passed the order on 26th Dec. 1994, awarding additional compensation at the rate of Rs. 7. 00 and Rs. 8. 00 per sq. mtr. of land along with other statutory benefits.

( 3 ) THE petitioners herein had accepted the amount of compensation as ordered by the Special Land Acquisition Officer under protest. The petitioners thereafter filed application under Sec. 28-A of the Land Acquisition Act on 23rd March 1995 within the limitation. The petitioners have come to this Court with the grievance that despite their application dated 23rd March 1995 moved under Sec. 28-A, the same is not being decided for all these years despite the fact that the Special Land Acquisition Officer had sent a letter dated 9th Jan. 1996 to the petitioners for finalising the application under Sec. 28-A and the petitioners had made appearance before him on 22nd Jan. 1996. The petitioners have also referred to a circular dated 10th March 1997 issued by the Addl. Chief Secretary, Revenue Department, Govt. of Gujarat, in the matter of fixing the time limit in deciding the applications under Sec. 28-A of the Land Acquisition Act.

( 4 ) THIS Special Civil Application dated 2nd Dec. 2000 filed before this Court on 9th Jan. 2001 came up before the Court on 10th Jan. 2001 on which date, the notice was issued making it returnable on 22nd Jan. 2001 as to why this Special Civil Application may not be admitted and finally disposed of at the admission stage itself. We, therefore, consider this order as the notice for final disposal and as good as Rule.

( 5 ) AFTER seeking time on the returnable date, i. e. 22nd Jan. 2001, and again on 7th Feb. 2001, when the matter came up before the Court on 7th March 2001, a statement was made by the learned Asstt. Govt. Pleader that in this case, the draft award had already been sent for approval of the State Government and he sought time. Thereafter, on 9th April 2001, time was again sought to take instructions from the Government as the draft award was pending with the Government for approval. The matter was posted for 16th April 2001 with the order that the concerned officer shall remain present before the Court along with the record. On 16th April 2001, it was noticed that despite sufficient opportunities, the respondents have failed to file any reply and comply the Courts order dated 9th April 2001 and the concerned officer did not remain present. Therefore, on 16th April 2001, the concerned Special Land Acquisition Officer from Mehsana was directed to remain present before the Court along with the record on 23rd April 2001 and the learned Asstt. Pleader was also directed to verify the factual position from the concerned Department of the Government as to what had happened to the draft award which had been sent for approval and it was also ordered that