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The Judgment of the Court was delivered by VENKATARAMIAH, J. Meerut city which is situated in a densely populated part of the State of Uttar Pradesh is growing very fast. The State Government constituted a Development Authority under the provisions of the U.P. Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973 for the city of Meerut for the purpose of tackling the problems of town planning and urban development resolutely, since it felt that the existing local body and other authorities in spite of their best efforts had not been able to cope up with the problems to the desired extent.

The Meerut Development Authority sent a proposal to the Collector of Meerut for acquisition of 662 bighas 10 biswas and 2 biswanis of land (approximately equal to 412 acres) situated at villages Mukarrabpur, Plahera, Paragana-Daurala, Tehsil Sardhana, Distt. Meerut for its housing scheme with the object of providing housing accommodation to the residents of Meerut city. After making necessary enquiries and receipt of the report from the tehsildar of Sardhana, the Collector was fully satisfied about the need for the acquisition of the land. He accordingly wrote a letter on December 13, 1979 to the Commissioner and Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, Government of Uttar Pradhesh recom- mending the acquisition of the above extent of land in the villages men tioned above and he also stated that since there was acute shortage of houses in Meerut city, it was necessary that the State Government should invoke section 17(i) and (4) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'). He also submitted a certificate as required by the Rules containing the relevant data on the basis of which the Government could take a decision. In that certificate he stated that the acquisition of the land was very necessary for the purposes of the housing scheme. The total value of the land was estimated to be about Rs.55,01,270.25 paise and the cost of trees and structures was stated to be in the order of about Rs. 1 lakh. The Secretary of the Meerut Development Authority also submitted his certificate in support of the acquisition of the land in question. He stated that the proposed cost of the project was in the order of Rs. 48 crores. He also furnished the number of flats to be constructed and house sites to be allotted. The certificate further stated that the land which was proposed to be acquired was being used for cultivation and that the said land had been proposed to be used for residential purposes under the master plan of Meerut city. After taking into consideration all the material before it including the certificates of the Collector and the Secretary, Meerut Development Authority, referred to above, the State Government published a notification under subsection (1) of section 4 of the Act notifying for general information that the land mentioned in the Schedule was needed for a public purpose, namely, for the construction of residential buildings for the people of Meerut by the Meerut Development Authority under a planned development scheme. The notification further stated that the State Government being of the opinion that the provisions of subsection (1) of section 17 of the Act were applicable to the said land inasmuch as it was arable land which was urgently required for the public purpose, referred to above. The notification further directed that section 5-A of the Act shall not apply to the proposed acquisition. The above notification was published in the U.P. Gazette on July 12, 1980 and it was followed by a declaration under section 6 of the Act which was issued on May 1, 1981. The possession of the land, which had been notified for acquisition, was taken and handed over to the Meerut Development Authority in July, 1982. Thereafter about 17 persons who owned in all about 40 acres of land out of the total of about 412 acres acquired, filed writ petitions in the High Court of Allahabad questioning the notification under section 4 and declaration under section 6 of the Act on the ground that the action of the Government in invoking section 17(1) of the Act and dispensing with the inquiry under section 5-A of the Act was not called for in the circumst-

Aggrieved by the decision of the High Court, the State of Uttar Pradesh and the Meerut Development Authority have filed the above appeals by special leave.

The main ground on which the High Court set aside the impugned notification and the declaration was that the case of urgency put forward by the State Government for dispensing with the compliance with the provisions of section 5-A of the Act had been belied by the delay of nearly one year that had ensued between the date of the notification under section 4 and the date of declaration made under section 6 of the Act. It, however, rejected the contention of the petitioners based on the delay that had preceded the issue of the notification under section 4 of the Act. The High Court observed that 'if the Government were satisfied with the urgency it would have certainly issued declaration under section 6 of the Act immediately after the issue of the notification under section 4 of the Act.' It found that the failure to issue declaration under section 6 of the Act immediately on the part of the State Government was fatal. That there was delay of nearly one year between the publication of the notification under section 4(1) of the Act containing the direction dispensing with the compliance with section 5-A of the Act and the date of publication of the declaration issued under section 6 of the Act is not disputed. It is seen from the record before us that after the publication of the notification under section 4(1) of the Act, the Collector after going through it found that there were some errors in the notification which needed to be corrected by issuing a corrigendum. Accordingly, he wrote a letter to the State Government on 25.8.1980 pointing out the errors and requesting the State Government to publish a corrigendum immediately. Both the corrigendum and the declaration under section 6 of the Act were issued on May 1, 1981. It is on account of some error on the part of the officials who were entrusted with the duty of processing of the case at the level of the Secretariat there was a delay of nearly one year between the publication of the notification under section 4(1) and the publication of the declaration under section 6 of the Act. The question for consideration is whether in the circumstances of the case it could be said that on account of the mere delay of nearly one year in the publication of the declaration it could be said that the order made by the State Government dispensing with the compliance with section 5-A of the Act at the time of the publication of the notification under section 4(1) of the Act would stand vitiated in the absence of any other material. In this case there is no allegation of any kind of mala fides on the part of either the Government or any of the officers, nor do the respondents contend that there was no urgent necessity for providing housing accommodation to a large number of people of Meerut city during the relevant time. The letters and the certificates submitted by the Collector and the Secretary of the Meerut Development Authority to the State Government before the issue of the notification under section 4(1) of the Act clearly demonstrated that at that time there was a great urgency felt by them regarding the provision of housing accommodation at Meerut. The State Government acted upon the said reports, certificates and other material which were before it. In the circumstances of the case it cannot be said that the decision of the State Government in resorting to section 17(1) of the Act was unwarranted. The provision of housing accommodation in these days has become a matter of national urgency. We may take judicial notice of this fact. Now it is difficult to hold that in the case of proceedings relating to acquisition of land for providing house sites it is unnecessary to invoke section 17(1) of the Act and to dispense with the compliance with section 5-A of the Act. Perhaps, at the time to which the decision in Narayan Govind Gavate etc. v. State of Maharashtra, [1977] (1) S.C.R. 768 related the situation might have been that the schemes relating to development of residential areas in the urban centres were not so urgent and it was not necessary to eliminate the inquiry under section 5-A of the Act. The acquisition proceedings which had been challenged in that case related to the year 1963. During this period of nearly 23 years since then the population of India has gone up by hundreds of millions and it is no longer possible for the Court to take the view that the schemes of development of residential areas do not 'appear to demand such emergent action as to eliminate summary inquiries under section 5-A of the Act'. In Kasireddy Papaiah (died) and Ors. v. The Government of Andhra Pradesh & Ors., A.I.R. 1975 A.P. 269. Chinnappa Reddy, J. speaking for the High Court of Andhra Pradesh dealing with the problem of providing housing accommodation to Harijans has observed thus:

It is, however, argued by the learned counsel for the respondents that many of the persons from whom lands have been acquired are also persons without houses or shop sites and if they are to be thrown out of their land they would be exposed to serious prejudice. Since the land is being acquired for providing residential accommodation to the people of Meerut those who are being expropriated on account of the acquisition proceedings would also be eligible for some relief at the hands of the Meerut Development Authority. We may at this stage refer to the provision contained in section 21(2) of the Delhi Development Act, 1957 which reads as follows: