M.M.Kumar, J.

1. This petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution prays for quashing notification dated 2.12.1988 (P-7) issued under Section 4 and declaration dated 5.12.1988 (P-8) issued under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for brevity, `the Act).

2. Facts of the case may first be noticed. Petitioner No. 1 to 13 are residents of village Issapur, Tehsil Dera Bassi, District S.A.S. Nagar, Mohali, whereas petitioner No. 14 is the Gram Panchayat of Village Issapur. The land falling in the revenue estate of village Issapur was sought to be acquired by the respondents for construction of a link canal to the main Satluj Yamuna Link Canal (SYL), namely, `Bassi Distributory. For the aforementioned purpose a survey was carried out way back in the year 1988. However, when the villagers and the Gram Panchayat came to know that the distributory would pass through the worship place of the village and 400 feet long roads, which are metlled and connect the other villages, they objected to it. In this regard a resolution dated 24.1.1988 was also passed by the Gram Panchayat-petitioner No. 14 (P-1). The matter was also agitated by making representation dated 14.3.1988 (P-2) followed by another detailed representation dated 16.3.1988 (P-3), which was forwarded to the Secretary to Government, Punjab, Department of Irrigation and Power, Chandigarh. A communication in this regard was sent to the Sarpanch, Gram Panchayat, Issapur, on 25.3.1988 by the Officer on Special Duty to Governor, Punjab (P- 4). The petitioners have claimed that thereafter the matter was taken up with the concerned department and correspondence was made from time to time and assurance was given that alignment of the distributory would be re-located, however, while doing so the other land of the Gram Panchayat would fall in the way of the distributory. The Gram Panchayat consented the same. A resolution dated 6.6.1988 was passed by the Gram Panchayat which is to the effect that if the distributory is constructed over land falling under Khasra Nos. 83//24/23, 23 after its relocation, then the Gram Panchayat would have no objection. It was also decided that a copy of the resolution be sent to the concerned department for setting up the distributory over the aforementioned khasra numbers and compensation be paid (P-6).

3. On 2.12.1988 (16.11.1988?), a notification under Section 4 of the Act was issued for acquiring the land for public purpose, namely, for construction of Bassi Distributory in village Isapur, Tehsil Rajpura, District Patiala. The provisions of Section 17 of the Act were also invoked by giving the reasoning that construction of S.Y.L. Canal (Punjab portion) has to be started immediately so as to meet the time bound construction schedule of the project based on the inter-state agreement between the State of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan (P-7). Through the aforementioned notification, 9.31 acres of land belonging to the petitioners (as detailed in para 9 of the petition) was sought to be acquired. On 5.12.1988, a declaration under Section 6 read with Section 17(1) of the Act was issued acquiring the land in question (P-8).

4. On 21.10.1989, the Gram Panchayat, Isapur, passed another resolution and decided to approach the concerned authorities regarding change of alignment of the distributory as the earlier assurances given to them were not fulfilled (P-9). On 27.10.1989, a representation was made to the Land Acquisition Collector for taking no further steps concerning acquisition of the land because the matter was pending consideration of the higher authorities (P-10). However, the Land Acquisition Collector passed an award on 4.1.1990 in respect of the acquired land (P-11).

5. Ultimately, when the representations made by the petitioners/land owners failed to yield any result they filed references under Section 18 of the Act in the Court of learned Additional District Judge, Patiala. In all 12 land references were filed on 8.8.1991. Dur