ORDER :

V.P. Patel, J.

Rule.

1. Heard learned advocate Mr. A.J. Yagnik for the petitioner, leaned advocate Mr. Nanavaty for the respondent Nos. 1 & 3, and learned Government Pleader Ms. Manisha Lavkumar for the respondent Nos. 2 & 4.

2. Learned advocate for the petitioner and respondent Nos. 1 & 3 have submitted their joint notes on the issues on which there is no dispute and broad consensus and accordingly urged the Court to dispose of these matters on the lines. The same is taken on record. The contents of the said notes is required to be noted hereunder and which reads as under:

"1. The present petitioners are farmers of nine Villages namely Nangal, Pungaam, Boedra, Hinglot, Adol, Kukkarwada, Munbar, Tarsadi and Dehgaam of District Bharuch whose land/s is/are acquired for the construction and widening of Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway under the National Highways Act, 1956 for which compensation has to be determined on and after 01.01.2015 in accordance with provisions of the RFCTLARR Act of 2013.

2. The present group of petitions have been filed raising common questions of law and inter alia, questioning the arbitrary, illegal and irrational fixation of multiplying factor as factor 1.00 for villages falling with Urban Development Authority or considered part of Area Development Authority. Paragraph 1 (V) raising issue qua the fixation of multiplication factor from the captioned petition/s is reproduced herein below for ready reference:

(V) The Act of 2013 mandates that in determination of compensation, the multiplier be fixed in the range between 1 to 2 based on the proximity of the concerned area from the urban area. Low market price of remotely located land from rural are requires provision for higher multiplier. This seems to be the object for provision of multiplier ranging from 1.00 (one) to 2.00 (two). However the state government has arbitrarily settled for multiplier 1.00 for all urban areas and multiplier 2.00 for all rural areas.

The captioned Petition/s have been filed praying for the following prayers:

9. In view of above the Hon'ble Court may be pleased to exercise Writ Jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India and issue Writ of Mandamus and/or Writ of Certiorari or any other appropriate Writ or pass order or direction in the nature of writ and thereby:

A. Your Lordships Be pleased to hold and declare that land acquisition award for Village Nangal annexed At ANNEXURE-A passed by respondent Competent Authority under Section 3G(1) of the National high ways Act, 1956, in connection with acquisition of land for construction of Vadodara-Mumbai Six/Eight Lane Expressway and to the extent of determination of compensation as illegal and unconstitutional an Be Further pleased to quash and set aside the impugned award only to the extent of manner and method in which the amount of compensation is determined and the actual amount is awarded without disturbing the entire land acquisition proceedings.

B. Your Lordships Be pleased to direct respondent Land Acquisition Officer, on remand of the award for limited extent as stated hereinabove, to determine the amount of compensation in the cases of petitioners afresh by taking into consideration the mandate of Section 26 of the Act of 2013 read with amended Rule 5 of the Gujarat Stamp (Determination of market Value of Property) Rules, 1984 as amended vide notification dated 21st march 2016 as well as implement the guidelines of respondent Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways issued in December, 2017 providing for comprehensive guidelines for land acquisition under the National Highways Act, 1956;

C. Be pleased to direct respondent Land Acquisition Officer, on remand of the award for limited extent as stated hereinabove, to provide opportunity in person and/or in writing to all the parties to make a representation with regard to issues raised in the present petition in the process of determining compensation as per the Schedule I, II and III of the Act of 2013 as a part of