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20. Learned senior advocate appearing for the writ petitioners has referred to the various provisions of the Act of 1894 including Section 3 thereof. He has submitted that, the Act of 1894 was a temporary statute. Initially the life of statute was up to March 31, 1951. Thereafter, the life of the Act of 1948 had been extended from time to time and lastly till March 31, 1997. Thereafter, no further extension has been granted. He has pointed out that, the last extension was granted by the West Bengal Land (Requisition and Acquisition) (Amendment) Act, 1994 which was published on March 31, 1994. He has pointed out that, the West Bengal Land (Requisition and Acquisition) (Amendment) Act, 1996 had been passed to amend the Act of 1948 to introduce Section 7A to the Act of 1948. Such amendment had come into force on and from April 1, 1994. He has contended that, by virtue of Section 7A of the Act of 1948, the Collector was required to declare the award within 3 years from the date of notification under Section 4 (1a) of the Act of 1948 and if such award was not made within such period, the notice shall lapse. He has pointed out that, under the proviso to Section 7A of the Act of 1948, in cases where such notice has been published more than 2 years before the commencement of the Amendment Act of 1994, an award shall be made within a period of one year from the date of commencement of that Act, that is to say that, where notices were published 2 years before April 1, 1994, the award was directed to be published on or before March 31, 1995 otherwise the notice for acquisition shall lapse.

29. Learned senior advocate appearing for the writ petitioners has contended that, the vesting under the Act of 1948 is different from that of the Act of 1994. He has contended that, the Act of 1948 was a temporary statute under which the acquisition proceeding was initiated. Schemes under the two Acts are completely different. Concept of vesting under the two Acts are different. He has pointed out that, both in Sabitri Devi And others (supra) and Mandodari Bhakat (supra) it was held that the vesting did not continue and that, in view of the lapse of the acquisition proceedings under Section 7A of the Act of 1948 title of the original owner revived.

37. The Act of 1948 came into being for the purpose of equipping the State with an expeditious mechanism for requisition and acquisition of land for certain purposes. It was conceived of as a temporary statute. Section 1(4) of the Act of 1948 laid down the terminal date of the statute. Originally, it was March 31, 1951. However such terminal date was extended from time to time. The last extension was by the West Bengal Land (Requisition and Acquisition) (Amendment) Act, 1994 which extended the life of the Act of 1948 till March 31, 1997.