IMPORTANT POINT
Non compliance with mandatory requirements of section 4 invalidates the acquisition proceeding.

ORDER

1. This appeal is directed against the judgment and order passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Writ Petition No.2699 of 1987 dated 21.07.1998. By the impugned judgment and order, the High Court has dismissed the writ petition filed by one of the interested persons, having interest in land Survey No.119/3 Pt. situated at Village Malad, Taluka, Borivali, District Bombay Suburban.

2. Section 4 Notification dated 24.10.1975, under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short ‘the Act’) came to be issued by the State Government to acquire certain piece of lands situated in different villages for the purpose of establishing Central Ordinance Depot for the Union of India (Military).

3. The beneficiary of these lands is the Central Government. They are served, but at the time of hearing of this appeal, they were not present before the Court and, therefore, we had no occasion to hear the learned counsel for the Union of India.

4. We have heard Mr. Jay Savla, learned counsel for the appellants and Mr. Shankar Chillarge, learned counsel for the State of Maharashtra.

5. The appellants, herein, claim that they are the legal heirs of deceased Ismail Nadiadwala. During the lifetime of Ismail Nadiadwala, the State Government had issued notifications under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act to acquire various lands for a public purpose, namely, for establishing military personnel ordinance on the land which belonged to late Ismail Nadiadwala and one Ibrahim Nadiadwala. They had a joint interest in the property.

6. After such acquisition and without issuing any notice to the appellants and after hearing only Ibrahim Nadiadwala, the award came to be passed by the State Government vide order dated 23.09.1986. Immediately, thereafter, Ibrahim Nadiadwala had requested the State Government to permit him to look into the records to find out whether he had issued with any notice. Since such permission was not granted to him, he had filed a petition before the High Court under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, inter alia, questioning the notifications issued under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act.

7. As we have already noticed, the Division Bench of the Bombay High Court has dismissed the petition filed by the appellants.

8. Learned counsel appearing for the appellants would contend that the respondent-State, while issuing the notification under Section 4(1) of the Act, had not complied with the mandatory requirement, that is, to publish the notification in a public place. Secondly, it is stated that the appellants’ predecessor was recorded as the owner of the property and no individual notice was issued to him. It is further contended that Section 6 of the notification was the subject matter of a Writ Petition before the High Court in Writ Petition No.149/1979. The High Court vide its order dated 6.9.1982, while allowing the petition, had quashed the notification dated 22.11.1978 issued under Section 6 of the Act and the order so passed was not questioned by the respondent-State before any other forum. According to learned counsel, since the order so passed by the learned Judge had attained finality, the respondent cannot now contend that it was confined only to the appellants in the said Writ Petition. Learned counsel further submits that after the Award was made, possession of the lands requires to be taken as provided under Section 16 of the Act. According to learned counsel, in the instant case, the respondents have not taken possession of the lands as envisaged under Section 16 of the Act. Their stand appears to be that since the lands were already in possession of the Defence establishment, possession as required under Section 16 of the Act need not be resorted to. Lastly, learned counsel would submit that after Section 6 notification was issued at the instance of the beneficiary of the notification, certain lands came to be deleted from Section 6 notification and the same could not have been done