S.S. Sandhawalia, J. - (1.) WHETHER the acquisition of land by the State for the specific purpose of the allotment of house sites to the landless workers in the rural areas is within the ambit of a "public purpose" under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act is the significant issue which calls for determination in this set of writ petitions.
(2.) THE acquisition proceedings commenced by the State of Punjab all over the State in its rural areas with the object of housing landless workers therein has been the subject -matter of challenge in innumerable writ petitions filed in this Court. Three representative writ petitions Nos. 77, 299 and 786 of 1975 came up before me sitting singly and in view of the important issues involved therein these were referred to a larger Bench on March 21, 1975. The primary questions arising in these three writ petitions being common, this judgment would govern all of them. It suffices to advert to the facts in Civil Writ No. 77 of 1975 (Swaran Singh v. State of Punjab). The Petitioners herein aver that they are small landowners in village Moela, Tehsil Garhshankar, District Hoshiarpur, and jointly own and cultivate 122 Kanals of land in the said estate. Respondent No. 3, Gurdial Singh, is alleged to own 99 Kanals in the adjoining village estate of Wahidpur, the whole of which is stated to be under cultivation through his tenants. The State of Punjab is averred to have approved a scheme for providing house sites to landless workers in the rural areas and the salient features of the scheme are that after the purchase of the land by the State, the same will be carved out into house sites which would be allotted to landless workers free of cost (the expenses to be borne by the Central Government). The construction of houses on these sites would be made by the landless workers themselves. Apart from enacting legislation to confer homestead rights on landless Workers in respect of the sites, upon which their houses already exist, 'the State would utilise the land owned by it or the Gram Panchayats for carving out the house sites and in case these sources are insufficient then further land may be acquired for the purpose of the scheme.
(3.) IT is the Petitioners' case that 7 Kanals 2 Marias of land in all is required in the Petitioners' village Moela for the purpose abovesaid and similarly about 15 Kanals 16 Marias is required in the adjoining village of Wahidpur. The Petitioners allege that the area of 7 Kanals 2 Marias sought to be acquired is an integral part of their, agricultural plot measuring 4 acres for the development of which they have laid out considerable investment in the shape of a tube -well etc. It is alleged that in this very village, considerable area of common land is lying unutilised and available for acquisition and an identical situation prevails in the nearby abadi of village Wahidpur. The particular grievance of the Petitioners is directed against Annexure 'P -l', a notification dated August 26, 1974 under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act whereby the land is sought to be acquired for 'providing' house sites to landless workers of the village. Aggrieved by the abovesaid acquisition, the Petitioners filed objections before the Collector raising various grounds therein and it is alleged that these were illegally rejected by him on November 23, 1974 vide order Annexure P -3. It is further the case of the Petitioners that Respondent No. 3 had filed objections against the notification and acquisition in the village of Wahidpur which have been wrongly accepted by the Collector Land Acquisition vide order Annexure P -4 of the same date. Lastly, a grievance has been made that many ineligible persons have been included in the list of landless workers of the village. The acquisition proceedings have been challenged on a number of grounds specified in paragraphs 11 to 14 of the writ petition.;