Land acquisition procedure: later amendments to the Land Acquisition Act applied to the Karnataka special statute, causing lapse for no award.

Section 11-A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 applied to acquisitions under the Karnataka Acquisition of Land for House Sites Act, 1972 because that special Act was not a complete code and was supplemental to the Land Acquisition Act for enquiry, award, reference and compensation. The later amendment was therefore read into the Karnataka Act notwithstanding incorporation by reference, as the two statutes were in pari materia. On that basis, the acquisition proceedings lapsed when no award was passed within the prescribed period, and the land acquisition notifications ceased to operate.

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Issues: Whether Section 11-A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 was attracted to acquisitions under Section 5 of the Karnataka Acquisition of Land for House Sites Act, 1972, and whether the acquisition proceedings lapsed for non-passing of an award within the prescribed period.

Analysis: The Karnataka Act, 1972 contained only a limited scheme for acquisition and did not provide its own complete machinery for enquiry, award, reference, apportionment, or payment of compensation. Section 5 applied the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, as amended by the Land Acquisition (Karnataka Extension and Amendment) Act, 1961, to those matters. The Court held that the words mutatis mutandis did not carry later amendments into the Karnataka Act merely by force of subsequent changes in the Central Act, but the case fell within recognised exceptions to the doctrine of incorporation because the two enactments were supplemental to each other and in pari materia. On that basis, the later insertion of Section 11-A into the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 applied to proceedings under the Karnataka Act, 1972 in relation to enquiry, award, reference and compensation.

Conclusion: Section 11-A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 applied to acquisitions under the Karnataka Acquisition of Land for House Sites Act, 1972, and the acquisition proceedings had lapsed since no award was passed within the prescribed period.

Final Conclusion: The land acquisition notifications under the Karnataka Act, 1972 ceased to operate and the appeals succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a special acquisition statute is not a complete code and is supplemental to, and in pari materia with, the Land Acquisition Act, later amendments to the Land Acquisition Act governing the acquisition procedure can be read into the special statute notwithstanding incorporation by reference.

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