V.GOPALA GOWDA, J. - (1.) Leave granted in all the Special Leave Petitions.
(2.) The present appeals arise out of the common impugned judgment and order dated 06.05.2004 in Writ Appeal Nos. 7543 -7557 of 1996 and connected matters passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Karnataka, wherein the judgment and order dated 12.07.1996, passed by the learned Single Judge of the High Court in Writ Petition Nos. 8188 -8201 of 1989 and other connected petitions quashing the acquisition notifications issued under Sections 4(1) and 6(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as the "L.A. Act") was set aside.
(3.) The relevant facts which are required for us to appreciate the rival legal contentions advanced on behalf of the parties are stated in brief hereunder: The lands involved in all these acquisition proceedings are agricultural lands belonging to poor agriculturalists. On 09.01.1984, Trinity House Building Co -Operative Society (hereinafter referred to as the "respondent -Society") was registered with the object of providing sites for building residential houses for its members. On 12.03.1985, the said society, represented by its President and Vice President entered into an agreement with M/S Srinivasa Enterprises, represented by its proprietor, Mr. S. Rangarajan. The said agreement was entered into between the parties essentially for getting the lands acquired in favour of the respondent -Society. The relevant clauses of the agreement will be extracted in the reasoning portion of the judgment. As per the agreement, a contract of agency was created in favour of Mr. S. Rangarajan to act as a middleman between the respondent -Society and the State Government to get the lands mentioned therein acquired in favour of the respondent -Society. ;