Govind Mathur, J.—The District of Nagaur is situated in Thar Desert and is mainly having rural population scattered in hamlets with average density of 127 persons per square kilometer. The entire district is having no perennial river and water supply mainly dependent on ground water, that is also saline and unpotable. In few pockets potable water at the depth of about 120 meters (about 450 feet) is available but that too is deteriorating due to intrusion of saline water from the adjoining saline zones and, therefore, fluoride contents continuously increasing. Entire district of Nagaur is declared as dark zone due to continues fall of underground water. The district is having about 9000 tube wells, that is highest in a single district in entire sate and due to excessive use of underground water, its table is lowering down with high speed. Looking to all these conditions, Division Bench of this Court acting upon a letter (D.B. Civil Writ Petition (PIL) No.628/2004, Govind Ram vs. State of Rajasthan & Ors.) restricted installation of tube wells.

2. To meet scarcity of potable water the Government of Rajasthan examined viability to avail water from nearest surface water sources those are (1) Indira Gandhi Canal and (2) Bisalpur Dam in District Tonk. Considering availability of 1200 qusek of water reserved for drinking purpose with Indira Gandhi Canal a project was drawn to provide water supply covering 1384 villages and 12 towns of District Nagaur and part of Bikaner District covering 111 villages and 12 towns from Indira Gandhi Canal. To execute the project a need of about 16000 bighas of land was observed and for purpose that acquisition a lump sum provision of Rs.400 lacs was taken.

3. With the public purpose aforesaid a notification dt. 13.11.2006 under Sec. 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act of 1894”) was issued on behalf of State Government intending acquisition of land including 215.70 hectares of land owned by the petitioner society i.e. running Gaushala and also using land to provide water and “Saivan Ghaas” to cattle.

4. A notification dt. 05.04.2007 under Sec. 17(4) read with Section 6 of the Act of 1894 was issued by the State Government and validity of that is assailed in this petition for writ with a contention that there was no reason available to the appropriate government to ignore usual procedure for land acquisition and to adopt extra ordinary procedure prescribed under Sec. 17(4) of the Act of 1894.

5. This Court by an order dt. 21.05.2007 directed the respondent State to make available record of the proceedings taken for the purpose of dispensing with the inquiry by invoking provisions of Section 17 of the Act of 1894, accordingly, the same was shown to the Court and learned counsel for the petitioner was also allowed to peruse the record. From perusal of the record it emerges out that the land acquisition was necessary to execute water supply project, however, the Principle Secretary to the Government of Rajasthan while taking a decision for adopting procedure prescribed under Sec. 17 of the Act of 1894 and dispensing with the inquiry as per provisions of Section 5-A of the Act of 1894 did not record reasons elaborately. The note sheet drawn on 13.03.2007 reads as follows:-

“13.03.2007. File was called for. Last week MLA’s from Nagaur Distt. met the Minister PHED and requested him to get Nagaur Project sanctioned so that villagers of Nagaur Distt. could be rid of brakish water. Minister directed to expedite and and reduce the time of execution to 30.09.2008. Matter of land acquisition was also Distt. Collector, Bikaner. After discussion it was felt necessary to do dispense with the procedure of Sec. 5A of Land Acquisition Act and to get this project executed at a fast speed, issue notices under Secs. 6 & 17(4) of L.A. Act, so that phase I could be started at the earliest. Take n/a accordingly for acquiring land at Village Sharahborla of Bka distt for AW etc.”

6. Learned cou

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