Limitation for land acquisition awards depends on the last statutory publication date, with only the stayed period excluded.

For limitation under the Land Acquisition Act, the relevant date under Section 11A is the last completed mode of publication of the Section 6 declaration, namely the final statutory publication required by Section 6(2). The stayed period is excluded only to the extent the acquisition proceedings were actually restrained by court order. Applying that rule, the award made in 1998 was beyond the permissible two-year period, the acquisition had lapsed, and the challenge to the award succeeded.

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Issues: Whether the award was made within the period of limitation under Section 11A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and whether the acquisition proceedings had lapsed.

Analysis: Section 11A requires the Collector to make an award within two years from the date of publication of the declaration under Section 6, and the period during which further action is stayed by a court must be excluded. The date of publication is the last of the statutory publication modes under Section 6(2), namely publication in the Official Gazette, publication in two daily newspapers, and public notice in the locality. The Court held that the High Court erred in treating 13.08.1985 as the relevant date and accepted that the last date of publication had to be determined strictly in accordance with Section 6(2). On that basis, and after applying the settled rule that the stayed period is excluded only for the period actually covered by judicial restraint, the award made in 1998 was beyond the permissible period.

Conclusion: The award was not made within limitation and the acquisition proceedings had lapsed; the challenge to the award succeeded.

Final Conclusion: The impugned acquisition award and the consequential dismissal of the writ petitions could not be sustained, and the appellants succeeded in having the acquisition proceedings treated as lapsed.

Ratio Decidendi: For computing limitation under Section 11A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the relevant date is the last completed mode of publication of the declaration under Section 6(2), and the award must be made within two years therefrom after excluding only the period lawfully stayed by a court.

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