Compliance with Section 5-A was not necessary as the acquisition was undertaken under Chapter VII of the Land Acquisition Act. The court also found that the acquisition served a public purpose, as electricity generation and distribution would benefit the public.

RAJENDRA MENON, J.

1. Petitioners, who are land-owners and are residents of Village Bujbuja and Dokaria situated in Gram Post Dokaria, District Vijayraghavgarh, District Katni, have filed this writ petition challenging the acquisition of land being undertaken by respondent No. 4 for the purpose of setting up a 660x3 Mega Watt Thermal Power Station in the District of Katni. Particulars of the land held by the petitioners and other details are mentioned in the body of the petition and, therefore, it is not reproduced in this order.

Challenge is made to the acquisition initiated and the memorandum of understanding entered into between the State Government and respondent No. 4 Company in the matter of acquisition. According to the petitioners, in Gram Bujbuja, land measuring 237.22 Hectares is being acquired; whereas in Village Dokaria land measuring 24.04 Hectares is being acquired. Petitioners claim to be permanent residents of the area in question and it is stated that initially a memorandum of understanding was entered into between the State Government and respondent No. 4 Company on 24.11.2009, for setting up of a Thermal Power Plant in District Betul, but subsequently vide Annexure P/1, a second memorandum of understanding was executed on 24.11.2009, whereby the Thermal Power Plant was being established in the District of Katni. It is further stated that for the purpose of establishment of the Power Plant in District Katni, total 593.64 Hectares of land is being acquired, out of which 107.02 Hectares is Government Land and 486.62 Hectares is private land, belonging to the petitioners and various other persons, situated in the villages as indicated hereinabove. It is pointed out that an application - Annexure P/2 was submitted by the representative of the Company in question to the Collector, Katni on 4.10.2010, alongwith the list of private land and government land annexed as Annexure P/3, to the said application. On the same being done, the Collector forwarded the matter to the Tehsildar, Vijayraghavgarh, who vide letter dated 11.10.2010 directed the Revenue Inspector to submit a report on the nine points as are indicated in the letter - Annexure P/4. The Collector accordingly registered a Revenue Case bearing No. 01/A-19/2010-11, on 5.10.2010 and the proceeding for acquisition was initiated. It is stated that the Collector received the report and thereafter the Additional Collector on 19.11.2010 vide Annexure P/6, directed the Deputy Director of Agriculture to also submit his report. Accordingly, a report - Annexure P/7 has been submitted on 27.11.2010, and another report was submitted by the Tehsildar, Vijayraghavgarh on 4.11.2010, vide Annexure P/8. Thereafter, the matter was proceeded with and the Deputy Director, Agriculture also submitted his report, which was forwarded to the Collector vide Annexure P/10, on 14.12.2010. Based on all these material, the Collector prepared his final report - Annexure P/11 on 19.1.2011, which was forwarded to the State Government and on the basis of the report of the Collector, the matter was placed before the Land Acquisition Committee on 22.2.2011, which granted its approval to the acquisition proceedings and the revenue authorities vide Notification dated 11.3.2011 - Annexure P/12, gave permission as required under law and thereafter the agreement was executed between the State Government and the Company on 8.7.2011, vide Annexure P/13. It is pointed out that report was also called for from the Forest Department and on 28.3.2011, the Forest Department communicated to the authorities that the land in question is not within the forest or core area, but it is about 2 Kms away from buffer zone of Bandhavgarh National Park. Thereafter, the Tehsildar, Vijayraghavgarh is said to have issued advertisement inviting objections with regard to the allotment of government land and certain objections with regard to this allotment was submitted by the villagers and the Gram Sabha. Inter-alia c