B. P. Singh, J. - (1.) In this batch of appeals the common judgment and order of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana dated April 28, 2003 disposing of the Writ Petitions has been assailed. In the Writ Petitions before the High Court, the acquisition proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act (for short the Act) by issuance of Notifications by the Chandigarh Administration under Section 4 thereof had been challenged which has been rejected by the High Court by its impugned judgment and order. The lands were sought to be acquired for Scheme Nos.2 and 3 and were spread over eleven Pockets within the Notified Area of Mani Majra, which has since vested in the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh. Pockets 1 to 6 related to Scheme No.2, while Pockets 9 to 11 related to Scheme No.3.
(2.) It is not disputed that so far as Pocket Nos.1 to 6 are concerned, the Notifications under Section 4 of the Act were issued on different dates between May 25, 1989 and October 12, 1989. It is also not disputed that several awards have been made and many of the land owners have received the compensation awarded, but the appellants herein have challenged the acquisition proceedings, mainly on two grounds, namely that in the absence of a building scheme framed under Section 192 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 no land could be acquired under the provisions of the Act for the purposes of the Scheme. Secondly, the appellants challenged the proceedings on the ground that the Notification under Section 4 of the Act was not published in the manner required, and in particular on the ground that there was no publication of the substance of the Notification under Section 4 of the Act in the locality. A few background facts may be noticed at the threshold:
(3.) The Mani Majra Gram Panchayat was declared a Notified Area under Section 241 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 on August 19, 1973. By Notification dated June 11, 1976, issued under Section 242 of the Act of 1911 certain provisions of the Act of 1911 such as Sections 3, 53, 58, and 192 were extended to the Mani Majra Notified Area. Section 243 of the Act of 1911 provides as follows:- 243. Application of Act to notified area. - For the purposes of any section of this Act which may be extended to a notified area the committee appointed for such area under section 242 shall be deemed to be a municipal committee under this Act and the area to be a municipality". It was urged before the High Court that without framing building scheme under Section 192 of the Act of 1911, the acquisition of the land for residential-cum-commercial complex (Scheme No.2 of the Notified Area Committee) could not be said to be for a public purpose and was contrary to law. It was argued that though the definition of public purpose" under the Act included, under Section 3(f)(vii), the provision of land for any other scheme or development sponsored by Government, or with the prior approval of the appropriate government, by a local authority, in the context of the Act of 1911 it must mean a building plan" contemplated by Section 192 of the Act of 1911. Since such a plan was never prepared by the Notified Area under Section 192, in the absence of a valid building Scheme", no land could be acquired for that purpose.;