R.F.A. No. 1809 of 2011 [1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH R.F.A. No. 1809 of 2011 (O&M) Date of decision: 28.3.2011 State of Haryana and another .. Appellants v. Durvasa Dutt and others .. Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BINDAL Present: Mr. D. D. Gupta, Additional Advocate General, Haryana. ... Rajesh Bindal J. This order will dispose of R.F.A. Nos. 1809 and 1810 of 2011, as common questions of law and facts are involved. The State is in appeal seeking reduction in the amount of compensation awarded to the land owners for the acquired land. Along with the appeals, applications seeking condonation of delay of 70 days in re- filing and and 111 days in filing thereof have also been filed. The facts have been extracted from R.F.A. No. 1809 of 2011. Briefly, the facts of the case are that vide notification dated 30.8.2000, published on 10.10.2001, issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, `the Act'), State of Haryana sought to acquire 1.65 acres of land, situated within the revenue estate of village Bahin, Hadbast No. 281, Tehsil Hathin, District Faridabad for construction of road from village Alimeo to village Bahin. The same was followed by notification dated 20.7.2001, published on 14.8.2001, issued under Section 6 of the Act. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short, `the Collector') assessed the market value of the acquired land @ ` 2,00,000/ per acre. R.F.A. No. 1809 of 2011 [2] Dissatisfied with the award of the Collector, the land owners filed objections. On reference under Section 18 of the Act, the learned court below assessed the market value of the acquired land @ ` 2,75,000/- per acre. Learned counsel for the State submitted that barring sale deed (Ex. P8), none of the sale deeds produced by the land owners on record was relevant as all were registered after the issuance of notification under Section 4 of the Act. The area dealt with therein was 4 kanals and 5 marlas. The average sale consideration paid was ` 3,95,294/- per acre. The Collector in the present case had assessed the value of the acquired land @ ` 2,00,000/- per acre, which was enhanced to ` 2,75,000/- per acre by the learned court below just by applying the thumb rule. He further submitted that the manner in which the assessment of compensation for the acquired land has been made by the learned court below is totally arbitrary considering the fact that irrelevant sale deeds have been considered and there is error even in the calculation of amount. As far as condonation of delay of 111 days in filing the appeal is concerned, it was submitted that the same occurred on account of the fact that there was acute shortage of staff in the office of the appellant which delayed preparation of the appeal. The papers had to be got typed from the market. There was nothing intentional. Heard learned counsel for the applicant-appellant and perused the paper book. In the present case, small portion of 1.65 acres of land, situated in the revenue estate of village Bahin, Tehsil Hathin, District Faridabad was acquired for the purpose of construction of road from village Alimeo to village Bahin. The assessment of value of the land by the Collector was ` 2,00,000/- per acre. The land owners had produced 11 sale deeds, 10 out of which were registered after the issuance of notification under Section 4 of the Act in the present case. It was only sale deed (Ex. P8), which was registered on 10.5.2000, whereby 4 kanals and 5 marlas of land was sold for ` 2,10,000/- at an average price of ` 3,95,294/- per acre. A perusal of the impugned award does not show that there is any site plan on record. However, the fact remains that acquisition of land in the present case is for R.F.A. No. 1809 of 2011 [3] the purpose of construction of a road, as a result of which the land of the land owners has been divided into two parts. Nothing has been awarded to the land owners on account of severance, the area acquired also being quite small and the increase granted by the learned court below is from ` 2,00,000/- to ` 2,75,000/- per acre, I do not find any reason to interfere with the impugned award. Accordingly, the appeals are dismissed. As there is no merit in the present appeals, the applications for condonation of delay in filing and re-filing the appeals are also dismissed. However, it is made clear that the appeals filed by the State will not affect the appeal, if any, filed by the land owners, which shall be considered on its own merits. (Rajesh Bindal) Judge 28.3.2011 mk