HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE GODA RAGHURAM WRIT PETITION No. 2003 of 2007 DATED: 13-2-2007 Between: Edemoni Naraiah and another …Petitioners and The Collector and District Magistrate, Mahaboobnagar District and another …Respondents. HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GODA RAGHURAM W.P.No. 2003 of 2007 ORAL ORDER: The petitioners lands are sought to be acquired by the issuance of a notiﬁcation, dated 1-6-2006, under Section 4 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short ‘the Act’). Urgency clause has been invoked under Section 17 (4) of the Act and enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act has been dispensed with mechanically without due application of mind, is the complaint. The draft notiﬁcation under Section 6 of the Act has been issued on 10-6-2006. The impugned notiﬁcation states that the acquisition is for the purpose of allotment of house-sites for weaker sections. This requirement is not of such an emergent nature as would justify invocation of the urgency clause and dispensing with the enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act. The enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act is a salutary statutory provision intended for aﬀording a reasonable opportunity to the owners of the lands to object to the acquisition on any relevant grounds as they wish to submit. In the aforesaid circumstances, the decision in the impugned notiﬁcation to invoke the urgency clause and dispensing with the enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act is declared irrational and unsustainable. The respondents are directed to issue notice to the petitioner for submission of objections, if any, to the proposal to acquire the lands. On the petitioners submitting their objections within the time stipulated in the notice, the same shall be considered and an appropriate decision taken duly communicating the decision to the petitioners simultaneously with the recommendations made after the enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act by the acquiring authority. The petitioners shall not be dispossessed pending communication of the decision to them consequent on the enquiry under Section 5-A of the Act. The draft declaration dated 10-6-2006 issued under Section 6 of the Act, is quashed. The writ petition is disposed of as above at the stage of admission, after hearing the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Government pleader for Land Acquisition. There shall, however, be no order as to costs. ________________ GODA RAGHURAM, J 13-02-2007 GRR