RAMJAS FOUNDATION AND ORS.versusU.O.I. AND ORS.

A                    RAMJAS FOUNDATION AND ORS.
                                         v.
                                U.0.1. AND ORS.

                              NOVEMBER 13, 1992

B         [M.H. KANIA, CJ., N.M. KASLIWAL AND N.P. SINGH, JJ.]

         Land Acquisition Act, 1894 :

        Sections 4,6,9 and JIJ-Notifications-Chal/enge ta-Delay-Not
C properly explainetJ-Effect of

          Notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 was
    issued in respect of certain lands including the lands belonging to the
    appellant-foundation situated at two different places.

D         The appellant-Foundation filed objections. Subsequently notifica-
    tions under Sections 6 and Notices under Sections 9 and 10 were also
    issued. The appellant-Foundation challenged the notifications in respect
    of the land situated at one of the two places, by way of a Writ Petition
    before the High Court and the same was dismissed as withdrawn with
    liberty to the petitioner to agitate the matter in a suit. Thereupon, the
E   appellant-Foundation filed a suit and the same was dismissed by a Single
    Judge of the High Court. The Letters Patent Appeal filed against that
    decision is pending.

           In respect of the land situated at the other place, a Writ Petition was
    filed by the appellant before the High Court, which came to be dismissed
F   as withdrawn. Thereafter, another Writ Petition was filed by the appellant·
    Foundation before the High Court challenging the notifications.

         The High Court having dismissed the Writ Petition, the appellant-
    Foundation preferred the present appeal.
G         On behalf of the appellants, it was contended that they filed their
    objections under Section SA of the Act, but the same were rejected ,.;thou!
    alTording any opportunity of personal hearing, and the denial of such
    opportunity invalidated the notifications; and that the land of the appel-
    lants being wakf property it ought to have been excluded on the basis of
H   the notification under Section 4 of the Act. Alternatively it was contended
                                         426
                       RAMJAS FOUNDATION v. U.0.1.                          427

    that the appellant has been running several educational institutions on       A
    the very land and that if the exemption for wakf property is not applicable
    to such educational and charitable institutions run by Hindus or non-
    Muslims, then such a notification would be violative of Article 14 of the
    Constitution.

          The Respondents contested the appeal on grounds of delay, !aches        B
    and acquiescence in filing the Writ Petition c~all.enging the acquisition
    proceedings. It was also stated that the appellaif~'were given opportunity
    of personal hearing.

          Dismissing the appeal, this Court,
                                                                                  c
           HELD: 1. The conduct of the appellants in raising the plea that no
    opportunity of personal hearing was given to the appellants in respect of the
    objections filed under Section SA of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 was
    totally baseless and factually incorrect and such conduct is reprehensible. It

-   is well-settled that a person invoking an equitable extraordinary jurisdiction D
    of the Court under Art. 226 of the Co"stitution is required to come with clean
    hands and should not conceal the material facts. (431-F, GI

          Farid Ahmed Abdul Samad & Anr. v. Municipal Corporation of the
    City of Ahmedabad & Anr., [1977] 1 SCR 71, referred to.
                                                                                  E
          2. The challenge to the acquisition proceedings was mainly based on
    the ground that in the notification dated 13.11.1959 issued under Section
    4 of the Act the lands of wakf property were excluded and the lands of the
    appellants being also used for educational and charitable purposes the
    same were also liable to be excluded. At a later stage a ground was also F
    taken that if wakf property in the aforesaid notification under Section 4 of
    the Act meant only wakf properties of the Mohammedans, then such
    notification was discriminatory and violative under Art. 14 of the Con-
    stitution as there was no reasonable ground to discriminate such proper-
    ties of Hindus or non-Muslims meant for charitable purposes. Thus the
    challenge was in respect of notifications under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act G
    alone and though in the prayer ciaos< relief has been sought to quash the
    notification under Sections 9 and 10 of the Act also which were issued in
    1972, no ground whatsoever has been pleaded in the writ petition nor
    raised in the p~esent appeal as to how the notifications under Sections 9
    and 10 had any concern for explaining the delay in respect of the Chai-       H
    428                 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1992] SUPP. 2 S.C.R.

A   lenge to notifications under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act, Admittedly the
    notices under sections 9 and 10 issued appellants in 1972 were in respect
    of a· portion of the land. The challenge on the other Land in the writ
    petition is in respect of notificatiom; under Sections 4 and 6 covering the
    entire land. There is no justification at all in explaining the delay on the
    ground that no award has been passed nor the appellants have been
B   dispossessed ,;o far. This cannot be an explanation for not challenging the
    notifications under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act and in the present case the
    appellants bad themselves sought stay from this Court as early as
    15.11.1978 for not making and declaring the award and not to dispossess
    the appellants. Thus there is no justification at all for the delay in not
C   challenging the notification issned under Section 4 on 13.11.1959 till 1973.
    Even notifications nnder Section 6 of the Act were issued in 1968 and 1969
    bnt not challenged till 1973. [435-H; 436-A-G]

            Af/atoon & Ors. v. Lt. Governor Delhi & Ors., [1975] 1 SCR 802,
    relied on.
D
            CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 2213 of
    1978.

         From the Judgment and Order dated 31.1.1978 of the Delhi High
    Court in Civil Writ Petition No. 106 of 1978.
E
         V.M. Tarkunde, S.B. Wad, Mrs. J.S. Wad and Mrs. Tamali Wad for
    the Appellants.

          K.T.S. Tulsi, Solicitior General, T.C. Sharma and P. Parmeshwaran
    for the Respondents.
F
            Kirpal Singh and M.A. Krishna Moorthy for the Intervener.
                                                                                   •
            The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

          KASLIWAL, J. This appeal by the Ramjas Foundation, a society duly
G   registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1960 and five others who
    are the Secretary and trustees of the Ramjas Foundation is directed against
    the order of the Delhi High Court dated January 31, 1978 dismissing the
    Civil Writ Petition No.106 of 1978 in limine.

           On November 13, 1959, the Chief Commissioner Delhi issued a
H    Notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter
              RAMJAS FOUNDATION v. U.0.l. [KASLIWAL J.]                     429


-   referred to as 'the Act') Land measuring 34070 acres was notified as land
    likely to be acquired by the Government at the public expense for a public
    purpose, namely, the planned development of Delhi. The following land
                                                                                   A


    was excluded from the scope of the notification:

            (a) Government land and evacues land;
                                                                                   B
            (b) the land already notified, either under Section 6 of the
                Land Acquisition Act for any Government Scheme;

            (c) the land already notified either under Section 4 o:
                under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, for
                House Building Cooperative Societies mentioned in
                                                                                   c
                annexure-III ;

            ( d) the land under graveyards, tombs, shrines and the land
                 attached to religious institutions and Wakf property.
                                                                                   D
           The aforesaid land measuring 34070 acres included land measuring
    about 872 bighas, 9 biswas situated in Chowkri Mubarikabad_and measur-
    ing about 730 bighas situated in Chowkri Sadhurakhurd, belonging to the
    Ramjas Foundation. The present appeal relates to the land situated in
    Chowkri Sadhurakhurd. The Ramjas Foundation on December 11, 1959
    filed objections under Section 5A of the Act for the entire land situated in   E
    Mubarikabad as well as Sadhurakhurd. The Lt. Governor of Delhi sub-
    sequently issued notifications under Section 6 of the Act on 15.4.1968,
    27.4.1968, 15.5.1968, 19.8.1968, 14.1.1969 and 18.1.1969. The Lt. Governor
    also issued notices under"Sections 9 and 10 of the Act on December 27,
    1972 for Sadhurakhurd land. As regards the land in Mubarikabad notifica-       F
    tion under Section 6 of the Act was issued on February 28, 1968. Ramjas
    Foundation filed a writ petition in may, 1968 in the Delhi High Court
    challenging the action of the Government in acquiring their lands situated
    in Mubarikabad. In the said writ petition Sachar, J. (as he then was) who
    heard the petition was of the view that the matter ought to be tried in a G
    suit instead of writ proceedings. He, therefore, by his order dated August
    10, 1971 permitted the Ramjas Foundation to withdraw the petition with
    liberty to agitate the matter in a suit and as such the writ petition was
    dismissed as withdrawn. The Ramjas Foundation then filed a suit in the
    Delhi High Court on November 8, 1971 for quashing the notifications
    issued under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act in respect of the land situated in H
     430                 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1992] SUPP. 2 S.C.R.

A Mubarikabad. The suit was dismissed by Awadh Behari Rohtagi, J. of the
     Deihl High Court by order dated 21.3.1977 reported in AIR 1977 Delhi
     261. Learned Counsel for the appellants brought to our notice that Letters
     Patent Appeal before the Division Bench of the High Court is pending
     against the aforesaid Judgment of the Learned Single Judge.

B          So far as the land situated in Sadhurakhurd with which we are
     concerned in the present appeal a Writ Petition No. 213 of 1973 was filed
     in the High Court and the same was dismissed as withdrawn on 30th
     March, 1977. Thereafter another Writ Petition No. 106 of 1978 was filed
     challenging the notifications issued under Sections 4, 6, 9 and 10 of the Act
IC   and the same was dismissed by the High Court by the impugned order
     dated January 31, 1978 in limine as already mentioned above.

         We have heard Mr. Tarkunde, Learned Senior Advocate on behalf
  of the appellants and Mr. Tulsi, Learned Additional Solicitor General on
D behalf of the respondents. Learned counsel for the appellants contended
  that the appellants had submitted their objections under Section SA of the
  Act on 11.12.1959 but the same were rejected without affording any oppor-
  tunity of personal hearing. It was submitted that it was mandatory on the
  part of the respondents to have given an opportunity of personal hearing
  specially when the same was desired and a denial of such opportunity of
E personal hearing invalidates the notifications issued under Sections 6 and
  9 of the Act. Reliance in respect of the above contention is placed on Farid
  Ahmed Abdul Samad & Anr. v. Municipal Corporation of the City of
  Ahmedabad & Anr., [19771 1 SCR 71.

F           It was also contended on behalf of the appellants that the notification
     issued under Section 4 of the Act itself excludes the land of wakf property.
     It has thus been contended that so far as the land in question is concerned
     the same being also a wakf property as such ought to have been exempted
     under the notification itself. It was submitted that Ramjas Foundation is
     an educational charitable society which is running several schools and post
G    graduate college in Delhi and several educational institutions are being run
     on the alleged acquired land itself. As an alternative argument it was
     submitted that in case this Hon'ble Court takes the view that wakf property
     mentioned in the alleged notification does not include the educational and
     charitable institutions run by Hindus or non·Muslims then such notification
H    is void for violation of Art. 14 of the Constitution.
                RAMJAS FOUNDATION v. U.0.1. [KASLIWAL J.]                  431

             As regards the objection of the violation of the mandatory provisions A
     of Section SA of the Act in not affording an opportunity of personal
     hearing while deciding such objections, we granted an opportunity to the
     Learned Additional Solicitor General to place material after examining the
..   original record. We grant~ this opportunity to the respondents on account
     of the reason that the writ petition had been dismissed by the High Court
                                                                                   B
     in limine without issuing notice to the respondents and as such the respon-
     dents had not been given any opportunity before the High Court to place
     any material to refute the allegations made by the appellants in this regard.
     The Additional Solicitor General during the course of the hearing of the
     matter placed an order of the Land Acquisition Collecto,, Delhi dated
     23.2.1968 which has been taken on record and for the purposes of iden-
                                                                                  c
     tification has been marked as Annexure 'X'. A copy of the said Annexure
     'X' was also given to the Learned counsel for the appellants. A perusal of
      the. aforesaid order dated 22.3.1968 clearly shows that the Ramjas Foun-
      dation Society was represented through Sh. Ratan Lal Gupta, Advocate
     who was given a personal hearing. From a perusal of the aforesaid docu- D
     ment Annexure 'X' dated 23.2.1968 it is clear that full opportunity of
     hearing through counsel was afforded to the _Rarnjas Foundation. It has
     been further mentioned in this order that the Rarnjas Foundation Society
     was also allowed to file fresh objections if so desired, but Sh. Ratan Lal
      Gupta, Learned Advocate for the Petitioner society declin~d and stated E
     that there was nothing more to add in the previous objection petition. After
      bringing the said document Annexure 'X' to the notice of the Learned
     counsel for the appellants, no satisfactory explanation or argument came
     forward on behalf of the appellants. The conduct of the appellants in
     raising the plea that no opportunity of personal hearing was given to the F
     appellants in respect of the objections filed under Section SA of the Act
     was totally baseless and factually incorrect and such conduct is reprehen-    '-

     sible. It is well settled that a person invoking an equitable extraordinary
     jurisdiction of the Court under Art. 226 of the Constitution is required to
     come with clean hands and should not conceal the material facts. The
     objection regarding not affording an opportunity of personal hearing in
                                                                                 G
     respect of objections filed under Section SA of the Act was one of the main
     planks of the grounds raised in the writ petition as well as in the Special
     Leave Petition filed before this Court and ought we know if such ground
     had not been taken this Court would have entertained this appeal or not.
                                                                                 H
   432                 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1992] SUPP. 2 S.C.R.

A The appellants have taken the advantage of obtaining the stay order also
    from this Court which is continuing for the last 14 years as the Special
    Leave Petition was filed in 1978 itself.

        It may be further noted that a common objection petition under
B Section 5A of the Act in respect of both the lands situated in Mubarikabad
  as well as in Sad)rnrakhurd was filed on 11.12.1959 through Sh. Ratan Jal
  Gupta, Advocate. The said objections were heard in the presence of Shri
  Ratan Lal Gupta, Advocate and disposed of by one common order An-
  nexure 'X' and we cannot believe an ipse dixit explanation made orally
  during the course of arguments on behalf of the appellants that they had
C no knowledge of any personal hearing being given to Shri Ratan Lal Gupta,
  Advocate. It is also important to note that no such objection was taken in
  respect of land in Mubarikabad.

          Another ground on which the present appeal has been contested is
D the ground of delay, !aches and acquiescence in filing the writ petition
  challenging the acquisition proceedings. As already mentioned above a
  common notification was issued under Section 4 of the Act for an area of
  34070 acres of land needed for planned development of Delhi. Between
  1959 and 1961, abou< six thousand objections were filed under Section SA
  of the Act. The objections were overruled. On March 18, 1966, the decla-
E ration under Section 6 of the Act was published in respect of a portion of
  the area. Thereafter, in 1970 notices were issued under Section 9(1) of the
  Act and some of the persons who had received such notices challenged the
  validity of acquisition proceedings by filing writ petitions before the High
  Court of Delhi. The High Court negatived all the contentions raised in
F those cases and dismissed the writ petitions. Thereafter appeals by grant
  of special leave against the Judgment of the Delhi High Court as well as
  writ petitions filed directly under Art. 32 of the Constitution were heard
  and disposed of by this Court by a common Judgment reported in Aflatoon
  & Ors. ~- Lt. Governor Delhi & Ors., [1975] 1 SCR 802. In the aforesaid
  case a Constitution Bench of this Court held that in the case of an
G acquisition of a large area of land comprising several plots belonging to
  different persons, the specification of the purpose can only be with regard
  to the acquisition of the whole area. Unlike in the case of an acquisition
  of a small area, it might be practically difficult to specify the particular
  purpose for which each and evaty item of land comprised in the area is
H needed.
               RAMJAS FOUNDATION v. V.0.1. [KASLIWAL J.]                    433

           It was further held in the above case that about six thousand objec- A
    tions were filed under Section 5A by persons interested in the property.
•   Several writ petitions were also filed in 1966 and 1967 challenging the
    validity of the acquisition proceedings. The Government had necessarily to
    wait for the disposal of the objections and petitions before proceeding
    further in the matter. The High Court was of the view that there was no
    inordinate delay on the part of the Government in completing the acquisi-
                                                                                  B
    tion proceedings. The conclusion of the High Court was held to be correct.
    It was also held in the above case that the writ. petitions were liable to be
    dismissed on the grounds of !aches and delay on the part of the petitioners.
    In the above case this Court had found that the appellants of that case had
    not moved in the matter even after the declaration under Section 6 was        c
    published in 1966. They approached the High Court with their writ peti-
    tions only in 1970 when the notices under Section 9 were issued to them.
    This Court then observed as under:

            "There was apparently no reason why the writ petitions                D
            should have waited till 1972 to come to this Court for
            challenging the validity of the notification issued in 1959
            on the ground that the particulars of the public purpose
            were not specified. A valid notification under Section 4 is
            a sine qua non for initiation of proceedings for ~cquisition
            of property. To have sat on the fence and allowed the                  E
            Government to complete the acquisition proceedings on
            the basis that the notification under Section 4 and the
            declaration under Section 6 were valid and then to attack
            the notification on grounds which were available to them
            at the time when the notification was published would be               F
            putting a premium on dilatory tactics. The writ petitions
            are liable to be dismissed on the ground oflaches and delay
            on the part of the petitioners".

           The delay and !aches in the case before us are even worse than those
    in the above cited Aflatoon 's case. The appellants had initially filed a \\Tit G
    petition No. 213/73 challenging the notification dated 13.11.1959 under
    Section 4 of. the Act and notification dated 27.4.1968 under Section 6 of
    the Act with respect to 245 bighas and 1 biswas of land situated in the
    revenue estate of Sadhurakhurd and the notices dated 27.12.1972 under
    Sections 9 and 10 of the Act issued by the Land Acquisition Collector, H
    434                 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1992] SUPP. 2 S.C.R.

A Delhi with respect to Khasra No. 1040/353 (12 bighas and 8 biswas). On
    30.3.1977 Shri M.C. Gupta, Learned counsel for the Ramjas Foundation
    stated that he had instructions from his clients to state that they did not
    want to press the petition and wish to withdraw it. The statement of Sh.
    ,Gupta had been separately recorded. The Court, in these circumstances
    permitted to withdraw the petition and dismissed the same as withdrawn.
B   It is important to note that in the statement Sh. M.C. Gupta, Learned
    counsel for the petitioners stated as under:

            "I may be permitted to withdraw this petition in view of the
            Judgment delivered by Hon. Mr. Justice Awadh Behari in
C           Suit No. 451of1971 decided on 21st March, 1977, between
            the parties, wherein the contentions urged were precisely
            the same as urged in this petition, my clients reserved the
            opportunity to file a fresh suit if so necessitated by the
            circumstances in future."
D
           It may be noted that the reference with regard to suit No. 451of1971
    decided on 21st March, 1977 is in respect of the land of petitioners situated
    in Mubarikabad. It is surprising that though the opportunity was sought for
    filing a fresh suit, the appellants again filed a writ petition No. 106 of 1978
    in the High Court on 7.1.1978 which was ultimately dismissed by the High
E   Court in iimine on 31st January, 1978 by a Division Bench comprising of
    T.P.S. Chawla and Awadh Behari, JJ. In this writ petition No. 106 of 1978
    the appellants conveniently omitted to mention that the permission to
    withdraw the petition No. 213 of 1973 was granted on the statement of Sh.
    M.C. Gupta that his clients reserved the liberty to file a fresh suit and not
F   writ. Thus no liberty wa> sought or given for filing a fresh writ petition. In
    any case there were r.o fresh ground or circumstances available to the
    appellants to file a fresh writ petition No. 106 of 1978 on 7.1.1978 on
    identical grounds when the earlier writ petition No. 213 of 1973 had been
    dismissed as withtlrawn on 30.3.1977. Nothing had happened between
G   30.3.1977 and 7.1.1978 for giving a fresh cause of action to the appellants
    to file the writ petition No. 106 of 1978. Awadh Behari, J. bad dismissed
    the suit No. 451 of 1971 by order dated 21.3.1977 in regard to the lands in
    Mubarikabad and be was also one of the Jud!!;es of the Division Bench who
    passed the impugned order dated January 31, 1978 dismissing the writ
    petition in limine as he was fully aware of the entire background of this
H   litigation. The appellants are themselves responsible for creating confusion
            RAMJAS FOUNDATION v. U.O.L [KASL!WAL J.]                      435

in initiating separate proceedings at different periods of time in respect of A
the lands situated in Mubarikabad and Sadhurakhurd though challenge to
the acquisition proceedings was on common grounds. Learned counsel for
the appellants was unable to satisfy in respect of such conduct of hide and
seek on the part of the appellants. In case, as sought to be explained by
Mr. Tarkunde, Learned Senior Counsel for the appellants, the appellants B
were depending on the result of the civil suit filed in respect of the lands
situated in Mubarikabad there was no justification for filing the writ
petition No. 213 of 1973 in respect of the land situated in Sadhurakhurd
as the suit was not decided in 1973 but was in fact dismissed on 21.3.1977.
We find no justification for filing the writ petition in respect of the land
situated in Sadhurakhurd in 1973 and subsequently withdrawing the writ C
petition on 30th March, 1977 reserving the liberty to file a fresh suit but
thereafter again filing the writ petition on 7.1.1978 instead of suit.

       Independently, of all the circumstances mentioned above, we shall
now consider the question of delay and !aches in filing the writ petition No.    D
106 of 1978 and the earlier writ petition No. 213 of 1973 relating to lands
in Sadhurakhurd. Mr. Tarkunde, Learned Senior Counsel vehemently con-
tended that there is no limitation prescribed for filing the writ petition and
the question of delay and !aches has to be examined independently in the
facts and circumstances of each case. He has argued that the appellants
are continuing in possession uptil date and though challenge has been            E
made to the validity of notifications issued under Section 4 in 1959, Section
6 in 1968 and 1%9 and Section 9 and 10 in 1972, there is no delay, since
no award has been passed so far and no loss has occasioned to the
respondents due to lapse of time. It has been submitted that there was no
change of circumstances during the intervening period and the delay had          F
been fully explained on the aforesaid grounds. It has also been argued that
notifications under Sections 9 and 10 were issued in 1972 and soon there-
after the appellants came forward with a writ petition No. 213 of 1973
challenging the notifications issued under Sections 4, 6, 9 and 10 of the Act.
We find no force at all in the above contentions.
                                                                                 G
      It is an admitted fact that notification under Section 4 of the Act was
issued as early as 1959 and all the notifications under Section 6 of the Act
in relation to the land of the appellants in Sadhurakhurd were issued in
1968 and 1969. The challenge to the acquisition proceedings was mainly
based on the ground that in the notification dated 13.11.1959 issued under H
•

        436                  SUPREME COURT REPORTS 11992] SUPP. 2 S.C.R.

    A Section 4 of the Act the lands of wakf property were excluded and the
        lands of the appellants being also used for educational and charitable
        purposes the same were also liable to be excluded. At a later stage a
        ground was also taken that if wakf property in the aforesaid notification
        under Section 4 of the Act meant only wakf properties of the Moham-
        medans, then such notification was discriminatory and violative under Art.
    B   14 of the Constitution as there was no reasonable ground to discriminate
        such properties of Hindus or non-Muslims also meant for charitable pur-
        poses. So far as the notifications under Section 6 of the Act are concerned
      the same were attacked on the ground that no opportunity of personal
      hearing was given to hear the objections filed under Section 5A of the Act.
    c Thus it is abundantly clear that the challenge was in respect of notifications
      under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act alone and though in the prayer clause
      relief had been sought to quash the notification under Sections 9 and 10
      of the Act also which were issued in 1972 but no ground whatsoever has
      been pleaded in the writ petition nor raised before us as to how the
    D notifications under Sections 9 and 10 had any concern for explaining the
      delay in respect of the challenge to notifications under Sections 4 and 6 of
      the Act. It is worthwhile to note that according to the appellants own
      showing the notices under Sections 9 and 10 issued to the appellants in
       1972 were in respect of the land being Khasra No. 1040/353 which related
       to 12 bighas· and 8 biswas only. The challenge on the other hand in the writ
    E petition is in respect of notifications under Sections 4 and 6 covering the
       entire land measuring about 730 bighas situate in village Sadhurakhurd. We
       find no justification at all in explaining the delay on the ground that no
       award has been passed nor the appellants have been dispossessed so far.
      This cannot be an explanation for not challenging the notifications under
    F Sections 4 and 6 of the Act and in the present case the appellants had
       themselves sought stay from this Court as early as 15.11.1978 for not
       making and declaring the award and not to dispossess the appellants. Thus
       we find no justification at all for the delay in not challenging the notification
       issued under Section 4 on 13.11.1959 till 1973. Even notifications under
       Section 6 of the Act were issued in 1968 and 1969 but not challenged till
    G 1973.·As already mentioned above inAflatoon's case (supra) a Constitution
        Bench of this Court has clearly held that even after the declaration under
       Section 6 of the Act published in 1966, the appellants had approached with
        their writ petitions in 1970 when the notices under Section 9 were issued
        to them the writ petitions were liable to be dismissed on the grounds of
    H


                                                ,
            RAMJAS FOUNDATION v. U.0.1. [KASLIWAL J.J                      437

!aches and delay. Mr. Tarkunde, learned senior counsel made strenuous A
effort to distinguish the aforesaid case on the ground that in the aforesaid
case the Court was influenced with the fact that the petitioners had sat on
the fence and allowed the Government to complete (emphasis added) the
acquisition proceedings. Much emphasis has heen laid on the word 'to
complete' the acquisition proceedings. We find no force in this submission        B
as the facts narrated in the above case clearly shows that the petitioners in
those cases had filed writ petitions in the High Court in 1970 and in the
Supreme Court in 1972 after the issuance of notices under Sections 4, 6
and 9 of the Act. The use of the word 'complete' was not of much
significance and the main reasoning of the case was that grounds to attack
the notification under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act were available at the C
time of publication of such notifications. In the facts and circumstances of
the case before us the appellants were also sitting on the fence and did not
take any steps of challenging the notification under Sections 4 and 6 of the
Act till 1973 though the grounds now sought lo be urged were available to
the appellants as soon as such notifications were issued. Thus viewing the D
matter from any angle we are clearly of the view that the writ petition was
also liable to be dismissed on the ground of !aches and delay on the part
of the appellants apart from other grounds already dealt by us. In the face
of the aforesaid view taken by us, it is not necessary at all to go on other
questions raised in the case. ·we decline to express any opinion on any
questions of law raised in the appeal.                                            E

      In the result we dismiss this appeal with costs. In view of the dismissal
of the appeal itself all interim orders stand vacated automatically.

G.N.                                                        Appeal dismissed.