The petitioners in all these writ petitions have challenged the land acquisition proceedings initiated by the Government to acquire the lands of about an extent of 1655.92 acres or thereabouts under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, hereinafter referred to as the Act ’ , for the purpose of setting up an Aromatic Complex and other petro based downstream projects of Madras Refineries Limited, hereinafter referred to as ‘M.R.L. ‘at the approximate cost of Rs.2,500 crores, by invoking the urgency provisions Sec.17(1) and (4) of the Act, while issuing Notification under Sec.4(1) of the Act. Since petitioners have raised common grounds in challenging the acquisition proceedings, all writ petitions were heard and disposed of together.

2. In view of the heavy demand for the lands in Manali Village for setting up of an Aromatic complex and other petro-based downstream projects, close to M.R.L., the Government proposed to acquire a large extent of lands situate in six villages viz., Mathur, Manali, Vaikkadu, Amullavoyal, Kosappur and Elanth-acheri Villages. The Government constituted official Committee and that the Committee made a joint inspection of all these vil