of the notice in the official gazette. 13. The provisions for grant of compensation in respect of the acquired land are found in Section 8 of the 1952 Act. The first option provided therein is to fix the compensation by an agreement between the acquiring body and the owners. if there is no such agreement, under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of Section 8, the Central Government is required to appoint an arbitrator for determining the amount of compensation payable. An offer for payment of compensation was made by the appellants belatedly after 12 years on 16th August, 1976. The respondents declined to accept the said offer. Therefore, the Land Acquisition Officer addressed a letter to the Government on 8th October, 1976 to appoint an arbitrator. Accordingly, the Additional District Judge, Gurdaspur was appointed as the Arbitrator. Nearly 22 years thereafter on 8th May, 1998, the award was declared by the Arbitrator by which he came to the conclusion that the market value of the