Official Gazette publication is mandatory before locality notice in land acquisition notifications under Section 4(1).

Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 was construed as requiring two mandatory steps: first, publication of the notification in the Official Gazette, and then public notice of its substance in the locality. The Court held that "notification" means a formal statutory declaration, not merely an internal governmental decision, and that the word "such" links the locality notice to the gazetted notification. Authorities suggesting that locality notice may precede gazette publication were distinguished, and earlier inconsistent decisions were overruled. Publication in the Official Gazette was therefore treated as a condition precedent, and the acquisition challenge succeeded.

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Issues: Whether publication in the Official Gazette is the sine qua non of a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and whether public notice in the locality can validly precede such gazette publication.

Analysis: The expression "notification" in Section 4(1) was held to mean more than an internal governmental decision and to require formal declaration and publication in the manner prescribed by the statute. The provision was read as an integrated whole, containing two mandatory steps: publication of the notification in the Official Gazette and then public notice of its substance in the locality. The word "such" was construed as referring to the gazetted notification, showing that the locality notice must follow the gazette publication. Authorities treating an unpublished order as a notification were distinguished, and earlier decisions inconsistent with this interpretation were overruled.

Conclusion: Publication in the Official Gazette is mandatory and must precede public notice in the locality; a prior locality notice does not satisfy Section 4(1). The challenge to the acquisition succeeded and the notification was quashed.

Ratio Decidendi: Under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, a notification is not complete unless it is first published in the Official Gazette, and the subsequent locality notice must be of that published notification.

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