JUDGMENT :

PUSHPENDRA SINGH BHATI, J.

1. As culled out from the memo of petitions, the present bunch of petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been preferred claiming, in sum and substance, the following reliefs:

(A) by an appropriate writ order or direction, the notices dated 16.02.2022 and 10.01.2023 may kindly be declared illegal and accordingly, be quashed and set aside.

(B) by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the respondents may be directed to not to take any action against the petitioners without giving them reasonable opportunity of being heard in accordance with law forthwith.

2. The genesis of the controversy involved herein lies in the notices, impugned herein, issued to the present petitioners, by the respondent-authority for removal of certain encroachments from the government lands; such encroachments, as the pleaded facts and the record would reveal, were sought to be removed for the purposes of National Highway (public project).

3. The impugned notice dated 10.01.2023 came to be issued by the respondents under Sections 26(2) and 27 of the Control of National Highways (Land and Traffic) Act, 2002 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Act of 2002’) to th