Counsel for the State of Madras relying upon the following observation of Patanjali Sastri, C.J., in Mrs. Bela Banerjee 's case(1) at p. 564: "The fixing of an anterior date for the ascertainment of Value may not, in certain circumstances, be (1) ; 944 .lm15 a violation of the constitutional requirement as, for instance, when the proposed scheme of acquisition becomes known before it is launched and prices rise sharply in anticipation of the benefits to be derived under it, but the fixing of an anterior date, which might have no relation to the value of the land when it is acquired, may be, many years later, cannot but be regarded as arbitrary", submitted that a law which merely fixes the market value on a date anterior to the date on which the owner is expro priated of his land, as determinative of the market value on which the compensation is to be based, cannot without further enquiry be regarded as infringing article 3 1 (2) of the Constitution.