By the Court.—The petitioner No.1, Jagriti Sahkari Awas Samiti Limited Ghaziabad through its Secretary Sri Raja Ram Pandey who has also joined as petitioner No. 2, have filed this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, aggrieved by the Notifications dated 10th March, 1988 issued by the State Government under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act’) and dated 8th July, 1988 published under Section 6 of the Act for acquisition of certain land mentioned therein situate at village Makanpur, Pargana Loni, District Ghaziabad for Planned Industrial Development through New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (hereinafter referred to as the NOIDA’). They have also sought a writ of certiorari for quashing notice dated 19th January, 1989 issued under Section 9 of the Act. A writ of mandamus restraining the respondents from interfering with the ownership, possession and use of the land in dispute has also been sought in the present writ petition.

2. The facts in brief giving rise to the present dispute are; the petitioner a Cooperative Housing Society got itself registered in accordance with the provisions of U.P. Cooperative Societies Act, 1965 (in short 1965 Act) on 16th April, 1982. A copy of the bye-laws of the Society are on record as Annexure 3 to the writ petition. The petitioner No.1 also became member of U.P. Cooperative Housing Federation Limited, an Apex Body under Section 2(a-4) (10) of 1965 Act. The petitioner Society purchased in all about 20 plots in Village Makanpur, Pargana Loni District Ghaziabad between March 1983 to November 1985 measuring 31 Bighas, 7 Biswas and 19 Biswansis after paying a total consideration of Rs. 19,91,880/- for providing housing accommodation to its members. The name of petitioner No.1 was also mutated in the revenue records. The Society formed a Scheme, namely, Shyam Vihar Yojna, to be developed on the aforesaid land, which it has purchased between 1983 to 1985 and, accordingly, it carved out small plots measuring about 200 yards for the purpose of distribution thereof to its member. It is said that the petitioner No.1 Society carved out in total about 287 plots, out of which it entered into agreement for sale with the members in respect to 181 plots and those members paid price of the plot of land as well as development charges. It is said that the agreements for sale were entered into prior to 10th March, 1988. In April 1985 and onwards, the petitioner No.1 started development activities including filling and levelling of land, construction of boundary wall, boring of tube well etc. On 26th August, 1985, the petitioner No.1 sent a letter to NOIDA inquiring as to whether the aforesaid land of the petitioner No.1 had been acquired. The NOIDA vide its letter dated 5th September, 1985 replied in negative. However, some employees of NOIDA started interfering with the petitioners’ activities on the land in question whereagainst it filed original suit No. 333 of 1986 in the Court of Munsif, Ghaziabad seeking injunction restraining NOIDA from interfering with the petitioner’s ownership, possession and use of the said land. The petitioner No.1 learnt that on 31st December, 1986, the State Government through Industries Department got a proposal for acquisition of petitioner’s land showing objective as “planned development of the area”. The proposal included certain documents including draft proposal, notification under Section 4 of the Act showing purpose of acquisition as “Planned Development of Industries in District Ghaziabad” and seeks to invoke urgency clause under Section 17(1) and (1-A) of the Act and to dispense with the provision of Section 5-A thereof. A draft notification under Section 6 of the Act, a preliminary report purporting to have been prepared by Special Land Acquisition Officer, NOIDA (in short SLAO) and chart of plots proposed to be acquired were also appended to the said proposal. On 5th May, 1987, the Dist