Gazette publication governs rescission of land acquisition declarations; a pre-notice Section 5-A hearing is invalid.

A cancellation of a Section 6 land acquisition declaration took effect only on publication in the Official Gazette, not from the earlier date on the cancellation order. Until that publication, landowners had no notice of withdrawal and could not be expected to attend a Section 5-A hearing, so the purported hearing was not a real opportunity to object. The power to rescind under Section 21 of the General Clauses Act did not permit retrospective cancellation of the declaration. The Court therefore treated compliance with Section 5-A as illusory and held the hearing invalid, with the fresh Section 6 declaration also invalid.

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Issues: Whether a declaration under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act could be rescinded and a hearing under Section 5-A could be treated as valid before publication of the cancellation in the Official Gazette, and whether the fresh declaration under Section 6 was valid.

Analysis: The cancellation of the earlier Section 6 declaration, though dated earlier, took effect only upon publication in the Official Gazette. Until such publication, the landowners had no notice that the earlier declaration had been withdrawn and were not bound to appear for the proposed hearing. Section 6(2) requires publication in the Official Gazette, and the power to rescind under Section 21 of the General Clauses Act does not authorise retrospective cancellation. A hearing fixed before the cancellation became known to the petitioners was therefore no real hearing, and compliance with Section 5-A was illusory and ineffective.

Conclusion: The hearing under Section 5-A was invalid, and the fresh declaration under Section 6 was invalid.

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