Judgment

D.P. Wadhwa, J.-Leave granted

All these five appeals arise out of a common judgment dated February 27, 1997 of a Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court in three Spe­cial Civil Applications (SCA) Nos. 1568/87, 5149/89 and 5171/91 where­by the High Court set aside the acquisition of land for M/s. Larsen and Toubro Ltd. (‘L&T Ltd.’ for short) under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, ‘the Act’) comprised in SCAs 1568/87 and 5149/89 and dismissed the challenge of L&T Ltd. in SCA 5171/ 91 for withdrawal from acquisition by the State Government under Section 48 of the Act. In all these matters, different notifications under Section 4 of the Act were issued as it appeared to the State Government that lands specified in these notifications which were under challenge in these matters were likely to be needed for the purpose of a housing colony of the L&T Ltd. “which was engaged in Engineering Manufactures Industries which was for a public purpose”. All the lands are situated in Village Mandalla, Taluk Choryasi, Dis­trict Surat. In SCA 1568/1987 acquisition was set aside on the ground that there was no compliance with the provisions of Rules 3 and 4 of the L