- (1.) A Bench of this Court in Swarn Singh and another v. State of Punjab and others, 1975 PunLJ 366, has held that acquisition for housing the houseless weaker sections of the community would fall within the term "Public purpose". That being so, the only surviving ground urged before us in this writ petition is the delay of 16 days in giving publicity to the substance of the impugned notification in the locality. Reliance is placed on the Full Bench decision of this Court in Rattan Singh and another v. The State of Punjab and others, 1976 78 PunLR 545. The head-note thereof reads :- "The substance of the notification issued under section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 , has to be published in the concerned locality simultaneously and in case it is not possible to give notice of the substance in the concerned locality simultaneously, then at least it has to be done immediately after the publication of the notification in the Official Gazette and it would be for the State to show that whatever time was taken to give notice of the substance in the concerned locality was the minimum possible time taken for this purpose."
(2.) In the instant case the State has not offered any explanation for the delay in giving publicity of the substance of the impugned notification. The case being admittedly covered by the Full Bench decision cited above, this petition has to be allowed and the acquisition proceedings are quashed. No order as to costs.;