- (1.) All these three writ petitions have been taken up together as question of law involved therein is common. In C.W.J.C. No. 15594 of 2012 (Sanghmitra Singh vrs. State of Bihar & Ors.), pleadings are complete. So far as other two writ petitions i.e. C.W.J.C. No. 4976 and C.W.J.C. No. 7431, both of 2014 are concerned, they are fresh writ petitions, but both learned counsel for the petitioners and learned counsel for the State state that both these writ petitions challenge the land acquisition proceedings and the notification issued thereunder, which question has already been dealt with and notifications have been set aside by a Division Bench of this Court in L.P.A. No. 1082 of 2011, decided on 29.01.2014.
(2.) With consent of the parties, all the three writ petitions have been taken up together and heard at length for their disposal at this stage itself.
(3.) Shri Rakesh Kumar Singh, learned counsel for the petitioners submits that all the three writ petitions relate to steps taken by the Government to acquire land for Maulana Mazharul Haque Arabic and Persian University. First in 2010, a notification under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (for short 'the Act') was issued in respect of 20.99 acres of land. Section 4 notification was issued on 21.07.2010. In the said notification itself, it was stated that the provision of section 5A of the Act is being dispensed with in view of urgency as per section 17(4) of the Act. This was followed by a declaration in terms of section 6 of the Act issued on 22.07.2010. These notifications are under challenge in C.W.J.C. No. 4976 and C.W.J.C. No. 7431, both of 2014. The total area of land sought to be acquired as per these notifications was 20.99 acres as noted above and the ground of challenge is that there being no such urgency, the only safeguard available to the citizen in terms of section 5A of the Act ought to have not been dispensed with. In other words, what was submitted was that there was no urgency at all justifying invocation of provisions of section 17(4) of the Act. I need not delve upon this issue; inasmuch as this Court has already considered the same very notifications in a letters patent appeal being L.P.A. No. 1082 of 2011, which has been allowed on 29.01.2014 and the declaration under section 6 of the Act, holding that it was not a case for invoking of emergency procedure, was set aside.;