Chandrakant Dahyabhai Fudnawala vs State of Gujarat

S.M. Soni, J.—In response to the notice issued by this Court, one Mr. R.S. Valvi has filed affidavit-in-reply on behalf of respondent No. 1. Heard the learned Advocates.

By this petition, petitioners have challenged legality of notification u/s 6 of Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (''Act'' for short) dated 7-12-1995 and the proceedings arising therein.

Of the numerous contentions challenging the same, one is that Section 6 notification is issued after the lapse of one year of issuance of notification u/s 4 and, therefore, in view of first proviso to Sub-section (1) of Section 6, said notification is barred and void ab initio and the proceedings commenced on the basis of the same are, therefore, illegal and bad. It will be relevant to state first the facts to appreciate this contention. Date of Section 4 notification is 29-11-1994. It was published in the newspapers on 2nd and 3rd December 1994. It was placed on the Notice Board of Mamlatdar on 7-12-1994. It was published in the Government Gazette on 8-12-1994. Thereafter, declaration u/s 6 was made on 7-12-1995. It was published in Official Gazette on the same date. It was then published in the newspaper on X-12-1995. Based on these facts, learned Counsel Mr. Thakker contended that declaration u/s 6 is published in the Official Gazette on 7-12-1995 and published in the newspaper on 8-12-1995 and, therefore, the same is published beyond the period of one year of the publication of notification u/s 4 of the Act. To appreciate this contention, it will be relevant to refer to the relevant proviso to Sub-section (1) of Section 6 of the Act, which reads as under:

... Provided that no declaration in respect of any particular land covered by a notification u/s 4, Sub-section (1),

(i) xxx xxx xxx (ii) published after the commencement of the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act. 1984, shall be made after the expiry of one year from the date of the publication of the notification.

How declaration u/s 6 is required to be published is provided in Sub-section (2) of Section 6, but, in our opinion, it is altogether for a different purpose. What is contemplated on the part of Land Acquisition Officer is to make a declaration u/s 6 within one year of the publication of the notification u/s 4. Question is how to calculate the period of one year contemplated in Clause (ii) of first proviso to Sub-section (1) of Section 6 of the Act. To calculate a period, there must be terminus a quo, i.e., the starting point, and terminus ad quem, i.e., destination-terminal point. On reading Clause (ii) of first proviso to Sub-section (1) of Section 6 of the Act, to count period of one year, it is to be started from the date of last publication of the notification u/s 4. Section 4 notification is required to be published in the manner and method prescribed therein. There, the mode is publication in Gazette, in two local newspapers and affixing of substance of such notification at convenient places in the locality where the land is situated. In the instant case, it would be the office of the Mamlatdar. When there are different modes of publication, there are all the possibilities of dates of publication being different. Therefore, question again would arise as to which date should be taken as the date of publication u/s 4. Section 4(1) itself provides for such a date and it is the last of the dates of such publication and the giving of such public notices. In the instant case, last date of such publication is 8-12-1994 when the said notification is published in Official Gazette. Other publications are prior in time. Therefore, 8-12-1994 is the starting point for calculating the period of one year for the purpose of deciding whether Section 6 declaration is made within the period of one year or not.

In Clause (ii) of first proviso to Sub-section (1) of Section 6, a declaration u/s 6 can be made within one year of the last date of the publication of the notification u/s 4. Thus, there is a bar to make declaration u/s 6 after the expiry of one year from the date of publication of the notification u/s 4. This bar is not for publication of Section 6 notification after the expiry of one year. In the instant case, declaration u/s 6 is made on 7-12-1995 and, therefore, it has been made within a period of one year from the "last" date of publication of Section 4 notification, being dated 8-12-1994. Thus, we do not find any substance in this contention that declaration u/s 6 of the Act is illegal as made after one year of publication of notification u/s 4 of the Act.

Learned Counsel for the petitioners has raised other numerous contentions, but all of them arc covered by the judgment of this Court (Coram: B.C. Patel and Ms. R.M. Doshit. JJ.) in Special Civil Application No. 8633 of 1995 decided on 6th and 7th December 1995. Said matter was a cognate matter, as the land in dispute was also covered u/s 4 notification which was under challenge before that Court. We, therefore, do not propose to discuss them again.

In the result, the petition fails and is dismissed. Notice discharged. No costs.