By the Court—In all these connected writ petitions the petitioners have prayed for quashing the notifications under Section 4, with the opinion of the State Government of urgency under Section 17 (1), and directions under Section 17 (4) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (the Act); and the notification under Section 6 (1) of the Act, for Yamuna Expressway Project, and construction of Interchange under the Yamuna Expressway Project in Distt. Agra, Aligarh and Mathura through ‘Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority’ (YEIDA). The petitioners have also prayed for directions not to give effect to the notifications, and to dispossess them after demolishing their constructions.

2. Heard Shri B.D. Mandhyan, Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Sanjiv Kumar; Shri P.C. Jhingan; Smt. Sarita Shukla for the petitioners. Shri Satish Chaturvedi, Additional Advocate General assisted by Shri M.C. Chaturvedi, Chief Standing Counsel and Shri M.C. Tripathi, Addl. Chief Standing Counsel appear for State respondents. Shri Navin Sinha, Senior Advocate assisted by Shri Yashwant Verma appear for M/s Jaiprakash Infratech Ltd. Shri Ramendra Pratap Singh appears for ‘Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority’.

3. The parties have exchanged affidavits. The Addl. Advocate General has produced the material on which the State Government recorded its satisfaction of invoking Section 17 (4) of the Act, for dispensing the enquiry under Section 5A of the Act.

4. The State Government took a decision for construction of Taj Expressway in the year 2001 towards east of Yamuna from New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) to Agra, and invited bids from interested parties for the project in the year 2003. The bid document was issued by the Taj Expressway Authority (TEA), now named as ‘Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority’ vide Notification dated 11.7.2008, setting up terms and conditions on which the contract was to be awarded. Para 1.1 relevant to introduction of the concept and the purpose of the project is quoted as below :

“The absence of a major highway on the eastern side of Yamuna in U.P. is resulting in longer travel time as well as inconvenience to road users. Considering this, U.P. Government is contemplating to provide an access-controlled expressway connecting New Delhi with Mathura and further Agra. The objectives of the proposed expressway are as follows :

(i) Provide a fast moving corridor to minimize the travel time;

(ii) To connect the main townships/ commercial centres on the eastern side of Yamuna;

(iii) To relieve NH-2 which is already congested and runs through the heart of cities like Faridabad, Ballabgarh and Palwal.”

5. The project included building of six lane high way to run over 160 kms. The project was offerred as a Joint Venture (JV) in which a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) company was to be floated; alternatively bidder could take the project exclusively. The company undertaking the project was to put the entire money for the project with the rights to collect toll charges for a period of 36 years, on the rates to be notified by the State Government, under a ‘Built Operate and Transfer’ (BOT) Scheme. To compensate the company undertaking the project a provision was made to have at five different places, each one of which is to be in Noida or Greater Noida subject to availability, 5 million sq. mtrs. of land along the express-way for commercial, amusement, industrial, institutional and residential complexes to be offered on lease for a period of 90 years on the acquisition cost. The entire cost of acquisition was to be paid by the company undertaking the project.

6. M/s Jaiprakash Infratech Ltd. was shortlisted along with one another company, and was awarded contract, after extensive bidding and negotiations. The project ran into difficulties initially raising public issues of acquisition of land for the purposes of a public limited company. A Commission of Enquiry was appointed by the State Governmen