The publication of a declaration under Section 6(2) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, is an integral part of the making of a declaration under Section 6(1), and cannot be read in isolation.

Rajesh Balia, J.-This petition pertains to acquisition of the petitioner’s land situated at Chuck 2-e Chhoti Tehsil and District Sriganganagar. This is second time that the petitioner has come before this Court challenging the notification dated 9th September, 1987, issued under Section 4 of the Central Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’), annexed along with the petition as Annexure 4, and declaration under Section 6 of the Act, dated 10-9-1987 (published in Gazette Extraordinary dated 11-9-1987), covering the land comprised in the notification Annexure 4, which has been annexed as Annexure 5, to the writ petition. The public purpose for which the land in question is sought to be acquired, so stated to be in these annexures, is that the land in question is required for construction of sewerage plant and strips,

within the Municipal Council, Sriganganagar. In the first instance, after publication of notification under Section 4 of the Act, which was published on 11-9-1987, in the Official Gazette; the petitioner’s co-licensee received a notice dated 11-9-1987 on 25-9-1987, purported to have been issued by the Land Acquisition Officer, Sriganganagar under Section 9 of the Act. The petitioner filed writ petition, number S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 2420/87 --Brij Mohan Narain vs. Land Acquisition Officer and others; challenging the acquisition proceedings. After filing of the writ petition, the declaration dated 10-7-1987 under Section 6 read with Section 17(4) of the Act, was published in the Official Gazette, on 8-10-1987. The earlier writ petition was filed on 3-10-1987. In the said writ petition, a prayer was made that the respondents may be restrained from publishing the declaration under Section 6 in pursuance of notification under Section 4 of the Act of 1894.

2. The aforesaid writ petition along with other writ petitions came to be decided by a Division Bench of this Court, by a common judgment dated 2-8-1988. It was held that notice under Section 9 having been issued before publication of the declaration under Section 6, was invalid. Until decision of the writ petition, declaration under Section 6 was published only in the Official Gazette dated 8-10-1987, and had not been published in the two daily newspapers circulating in the locality in which the land was situated, of which at least one had to be in the regional language and the Collector had also not caused public notice of the substance of such declaration, to be given at convenient places in the locality in which the land was situated. On a statement having been made on behalf of learned Counsel for the respondents, that before proceeding further in the acquisition matter, the publication of the declaration shall be carried out in terms of Section 6(2) of the Act and it is only after compliance with the provisions of Section 6 that the land in question will be acquired. The Court disposed off the matter, by quashing the notice under Section 9 of the Act, issued by the Collector, as noticed above, and directed the respondents to comply with the provisions of Section 6(2) of the Act, concerning publication of declaration within 2 months. The publication of declaration under Section 6 was not made within 2 months’ period, as fixed by the aforesaid judgment but ultimately, the declaration was published on 15th January, 1990, in a Hindi daily “Sima Sandesh” and in an another local daily “Lok Sammat

3. The petitioner has filed this writ petition challenging land acquisition proceedings once again. In the writ petition, the petitioner has raised very many grounds, challenging the issuance of notification under Section 4 of the Act as well as declaration under Section 6 of the Act of 1894. The principal contentions raised by learned Counsel for the petitioner are as under

.(1) That the acquisition proceedings have been resorted to for the fulfillment of a public purpose, namely, construction of a sewerage plant. Said public purpose do