C.W.P. No.17858 of 2009 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH (1) C.W.P. No.17858 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Maan Singh and another ....RESPONDENTS (2) C.W.P. No.17859 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Bhagwan Singh @ Nand Singh and another ....RESPONDENTS (3) C.W.P. No.17860 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Harjit Singh and another ....RESPONDENTS (4) C.W.P. No.17861 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Kulwant Singh and another ....RESPONDENTS C.W.P. No.17858 of 2009 -2- (5) C.W.P. No.17862 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Mohinder Singh and others ....RESPONDENTS (6) C.W.P. No.17863 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Arjun Singh and others ....RESPONDENTS (7) C.W.P. No.17864 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Kartar Singh and another ....RESPONDENTS (8) C.W.P. No.17865 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Karam Singh and others ....RESPONDENTS C.W.P. No.17858 of 2009 -3- (9) C.W.P. No.17866 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Mansa Singh and another ....RESPONDENTS (10) C.W.P. No.17867 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. AvtarSingh and others ....RESPONDENTS (11) C.W.P. No.17868 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Amar Singh and another ....RESPONDENTS (12) C.W.P. No.17869 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Udham Singh and another ....RESPONDENTS C.W.P. No.17858 of 2009 -4- (13) C.W.P. No.17870 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Ram Pal alias Ram Pal Verma and another ....RESPONDENTS (14) C.W.P. No.17871 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Sant Singh and another ....RESPONDENTS (15) C.W.P. No.17872 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Nachhatar Singh and another ....RESPONDENTS (16) C.W.P. No.17873 of 2009 Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation, Chandigarh .....PETITIONER Versus Sh. Radhey Sham Goel and others ....RESPONDENTS C.W.P. No.17858 of 2009 -5- DATE OF DECISION: NOVEMBER 23, 2009 CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SATISH KUMAR MITTAL HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MEHINDER SINGH SULLAR --- Present: Mr.Pradip Bhandari, Advocate, for the petitioner. .. SATISH KUMAR MITTAL, J. Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation has filed these sixteen writ petitions under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India for quashing of the impugned Awards passed by the Land Acquisition Collector under Section 28-A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as `the Act'). Undisputedly, the State of Punjab acquired 629.58 acres of lands, including the land of the respondents-land owners, situated in Village Sohana, Tehsil and District Mohali, for a public purpose, namely, for setting up an industrial estate vide notification dated 11.11.1993 issued under Section 4 of the Act. Vide Award dated 7.6.1996, the compensation payable to the land owner was determined. Feeling aggrieved against the said award, some of the land owners sought references under Section 18 of the Act. The Additional District Judge, Ropar vide judgment dated 12.12.2002, while deciding those references, enhanced the compensation. In view of the said judgment, the respondents-land owners, who did not seek the reference against the award of the Land Acquisition Collector, made applications for re-determination of compensation under Section 28-A of the Act within the time prescribed. Admittedly, those applications were kept pending as the dispute with regard to quantum of compensation was pending before this C.W.P. No.17858 of 2009 -6- Court on the appeal filed by the Government. When the dispute with regard to quantum of compensation was finalized up to the Supreme Court, the Land Acquisition Collector took up those applications for re-determination of compensation which was filed by various land owners within limitation, and after providing an opportunity of hearing to the land owners, allowed the same and re-determined the compensation in view of the judgment of the Additional District Judge, Ropar dated 12.12.2002, which was upheld up to Supreme Court. All the respondents have been awarded the compensation at the rate of Rs.6,96,000/- per acre along with all statutory benefits under Sections 23(1A), 23(2) and interest under Section 28 of the Act, by the impugned award dated 24.4.2009. Against the above-said award, the instant petitions have been filed inter alia on the ground that the Land Acquisition Collector should have awarded the interest to the respondents-land owners from the date of their applications filed under Section 28-A of the Act, and the applications filed by the land owners were wholly incompetent and time barred and the same were liable to be rejected, but the Land Acquisition Collector has wrongly allowed the same and passed the award while re-determining the compensation. After hearing the counsel for the petitioner, we are of the opinion that writ petitions filed by the petitioner are not maintainable as against the impugned Award, the petitioner has to seek reference under the provisions of Section 18 of the Act as laid down in sub-section (3) of Section 28A of the Act. Section 28A of the Act is reproduced below for ready reference:- “28A. Re-determination of the amount of compensation C.W.P. No.17858 of 2009 -7- on the basis of the award of the Court.- (1) Where in an award under this Part, the Court allows to the applicant any amount of compensation in excess of the amount awarded by the Collector under section 11, the persons interested in all the other land covered by the same notification under section 4, sub-section (1) and who are also aggrieved by the award of the Collector may, notwithstanding that they had not made an application to the Collector under section 18, by written application to the Collector within three months from the date of the award of the Court require that the amount of compensation payable to them may be re-determined on the basis of the amount of compensation awarded by the Court: Provided that in computing the period of three months within which an application to the Collector shall be made under this sub-section, the day on which the award was pronounced and the time requisite for obtaining a copy of the award shall be excluded. (2) The Collector shall, on receipt of an application under sub-section (1), conduct an inquiry after giving notice to all the persons interested and giving them a reasonable opportunity of being heard, and make an award determining the amount of compensation payable to the applicants. (3) Any person who has not accepted the award under sub- section (2) may, by written application to the Collector, require that the matter be referred by the Collector for the determination of the Court and the provisions of sections 18 to 28 shall, so far as may be, apply to such reference as they apply to a reference under section 18.” In the instant case, the impugned Award has been passed by the Land Acquisition Collector under sub-section (2) and if the petitioner is not accepting the said Award, then the only remedy available to it is to seek reference against the said Award under Section 18 of the Act. The said C.W.P. No.17858 of 2009 -8- remedy has not been availed by the petitioner. Hence, these petitions are dismissed being not maintainable in view of the said alternative remedy. (SATISH KUMAR MITTAL) JUDGE November 23, 2009 (MEHINDER SINGH SULLAR) vkg JUDGE