Sharma, J. - (1.) This appeal by and on behalf of sixty-one persons who came as refugees from West Pakistan in 1947 is directed against the order of the Delhi High Court rejecting their writ petition at the admission stage on the ground of laches. The appellants are aggrieved by a land acquisition proceeding in respect to the lands which they had obtained at an auction held in 1959 for the purpose of rehabilitating the evacuees.
(2.) Soon after the purchase of the land by the petitioners a notification under S. 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 was published in respect to an area shown in the map attached thereto, which included the lands of the petitioners. According to the case of the petitioners they had no information of this notification and they, therefore, did not take any step for its annulment. It was only in January, 1969 when the notification under S. 6 was issued that the petitioners learnt about the acquisition proceeding. They, then, raised their protest and went on agitating their grievance, but, did not get ny relief. Ultimately, they filed their writ application in July, 1986 which was dismissed by the High Court in limine.
(3.) It has been contended by the learned counsel for the appellants that the High Court ought not to have dismissed the writ case on the sole ground of delay. The case of the petitioners is that in view of the language used in the notification under S. 4 of the Act exempting Government land and evacuee land from the acquisition proceeding, the disputed land, even after it was auctioned, ought to have been excluded from the proceeding.;