P. R. GOKULAKRISHNAN, J. ( 1 ) RULE. Mr. Hawa and Mr. Karia waive service of the rule. With the consent of the parties all these matters are taken up to-day. ( 2 ) IN all the above petitions petitioners have come forward with Special Civil Ap- plications inter alia praying for a direction to the competent authority to make a Refer- ence under Section 18 of the Land Acquisi- tion Act. In all these cases the prayer for making References under Section 18 was rejected on the ground that the same is barred by limitation. ( 3 ) AS regards the facts in these cases are concerned there is no dispute that the peti- tioners were not present at the time the award was made by the Land Acquisition Officer; that the notice under Section 12 (2) was sent without the award annexed thereto; and that the petitioners were not aware of the con- tents of the actual award. ( 4 ) IN view of these admitted facts we can just refer to Section 18 of the Land Acquisi- tion Act. Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act reads as follows:18 Reference to court: (1) Any person interested who has not accepted the award may by written application to the Collector require that the matter be referred by the Collector for the determination of the court whether his objection be to the meas- urement of the land the amount of the compensation the persons to whom it is payable or the apportionment of the com- pensation amongst the persons interested. (2) The application shall state the grounds on which objection to the award is taken: Provided that every such applica- tion shall be made:- (a) if the person making it was present or represented before the Collector at the time when he made his award within six weeks from the date of the Collectors award (b) in other cases within six weeks of the receipt of the notice from the Collector under Section 12 sub-section (2) or within six months from the date of the Collectors award whichever period shall first expire. From the above provisions of law it is clear that the limitation starts running as provided on Section 18 (2) (b) on the facts and circumstances of this case. A Bench of our High Court in the judgment in the case of Rajat Hirabhai Motibhai and Ors. From the above provisions of law it is clear that the limitation starts running as provided on Section 18 (2) (b) on the facts and circumstances of this case. A Bench of our High Court in the judgment in the case of Rajat Hirabhai Motibhai and Ors. v. Deputy Collector Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation reported in 1985 (1) G. L. R. 275 has held as under: ( 5 ) THERE is an obligation on the part of the Collector not merely to intimate about the passing of the award but he has to com- municate the essential contents of the award if not a copy of the award. In view of the said obligation of the Collector it follows that the time for reckoning the period for filing a reference application will commence with the service of the copy of the award and if such an application is made within time thereafter it shall be disposed of in accor- dance with law. ( 6 ) IN the present case the application was made for the purpose of referring the matter under Section 18 within the stipulated period mentioned in Section 18 (2) (b ). Such stipulated period has to be reckoned from the date of communicating the contents of the award as provided in the abovesaid decision of our High Court. ( 7 ) TAKING this principle laid down in the decision petitioners in each of these petitions have filed the applications for ref- erence within the stipulated period after they received the contents of the award. In those circumstances the competent authority is not right in rejecting the applications for reference on the facts and circumstances of the present case and also following the prin- ciples laid down in the aforesaid decision the competent authority is directed to refer the matter under Section 18 to the court within six weeks from the receipt of the writ from this court. The orders of the competent authority rejecting the application under Section 18 as time-barred are set aside. Rule is made absolute in each of the matters. There will be no order as to costs. .