RFA No. 261 of 1991 (O&M) (1) In the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh Date of decision : 19.7.2010 1) R.F.A. No. 261 of 1991 (O&M) Smt. Satya Devi (deceased) through LRs .... Appellant Versus State of Punjab ... Respondent 2) R.F.A. No.1043 of 1991 (O&M) Ram Nath .... Appellant Versus State of Punjab ... Respondent 3) R.F.A. No.1044 of 1991 (O&M) Rajinder Pal and others .... Appellants Versus State of Punjab ... Respondent 4) R.F.A. No.1045 of 1991 (O&M) Karam Chand .... Appellant Versus State of Punjab ... Respondent 5) R.F.A. No.1046 of 1991 (O&M) Hardev Chand (since deceased) through LRs .... Appellant Versus State of Punjab ... Respondent 6) R.F.A. No.1457 of 1991 (O&M) Kimti Lal .... Appellant Versus State of Punjab ... Respondent 7) R.F.A. No. 1458 of 1991 (O&M) Satya Devi (deceased) through LRs .... Appellant Versus State of Punjab ... Respondent 8) R.F.A. No.2578 of 1991 (O&M) Gurdev Kaur .... Appellant Versus State of Punjab ... Respondent RFA No. 261 of 1991 (O&M) (2) 9) R.F.A. No. 229 of 1992 (O&M) Vas Dev and others .... Appellants Versus State of Punjab ... Respondent 10) R.F.A. No.230 of 1992 (O&M) Som Nath .... Appellant Versus State of Punjab ... Respondent 11) R.F.A. No.231 of 1992 (O&M) Amritsaria .... Appellant Versus State of Punjab ... Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BINDAL Present: Mr. Saurabh Garg, Advocate for Mr. R. K. Dadwal, Advocate, for the landowners. Mr. Yatinder Sharma, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab. Rajesh Bindal J. This order will dispose of a bunch of 11 appeals, as the same arise out of a common acquisition. The landowners have filed the aforesaid appeals before this court against the award of the learned court below passed under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, 'the Act') seeking enhancement of compensation for the acquired land. The facts have been extracted from RFA No. 261 of 1991. Briefly, the facts are that State of Punjab vide notification dated 11.11.1983, under Section 4 of the Act, acquired 363 kanals 16 marlas land in the revenue estate of village Kulewal, Tehsil Garhshankar, District Hoshiarpur for setting up Telephone Cable Project. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short, `the Collector'), vide award dated 29.5.1984 assessed the market value of the land @ ` 15,400/- per acre for chahi, ` 11,000/- per acre for barani and ` 4,070/- for gair mumkin, banjar kadim and kharkana kinds of land. Dissatisfied with the award of the Collector, the land owners filed objections. On reference under Section 18 of the Act, learned court below determined the market value of the acquired land @ `. 20,000/- per acre. It is this award which is impugned in the present set of appeals. RFA No. 261 of 1991 (O&M) (3) Learned counsel for the landowners submitted that the learned court below has not appreciated the evidence produced by them on record to determine the fair value of the acquired land. The land was strategically located just near the road going from Garhshankar to Anandpur Sahib and it was at a small distance from Garhshankar Town and as such it was very valuable. It was submitted that the learned court below has wrongly ignored the sale-deed dated 11.10.1985, Ex. A6, which is more relevant for determining the fair value of the acquired land. As the acquired land was close to Garhshankar Town, the sale deeds produced by the landowners should have been relied upon as such without applying any cut as the plots in the city will always be sold in square yards and not in acres. On the other hand, learned counsel for the State submitted that the acquired land is not situated near the Garhshankar Town. It was situated near the village. There was no activity at all in that direction when the land was acquired. Reliance should not be placed upon the sale deeds, as were produced by the appellants as they do not show the fair value of the land in the area being transactions for small plots. At the time of acquisition of land, it was merely being put to agriculture use. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the relevant referred record. As far as location of the land is concerned, the landowners have produced on record site plan, Ex. A-1, according to which the acquired land is located on the southern side of Garhshankar-Anandpur Sahib Road. The learned court below primarily relied upon sale deed (Ex. A15), whereby 3 kanals 16 marlas of land was sold for a consideration of ` 11,400/- i.e. ` 24,000/- per acre. It was further found that the land pertaining to this sale deed was situated near the acquired land. Considering this to be the best piece of evidence and more close to the acquired land in location. The cut of about 15% applied thereon is justified as the land acquired was a big chunk whereas the land sold vide sale-deed, Ex. A-15, was merely 3 kanals 16 marlas. Sale-deed dated 20.5.1983, Ex. A-5 vide which land measuring 3 kanals 12 marlas of land was sold at `. 17,100/- i.e. ` 38,000/- per acre, relied upon by the landowners was rightly discarded by the court as the same was not located on site plan, Ex. A-1, considering the same to be far from the acquired land. In so far as sale-deed, Ex. A6, which was executed on 11.10.1985 vide which 1 kanal of land was sold for consideration of ` 10,000/-. As the RFA No. 261 of 1991 (O&M) (4) evidence in the form of sale-deeds regarding the sale of land of same village were available, this sale-deed of other village could not be relied. No other point was argued. For the reasons mentioned above, the appeals are dismissed. 19.7.2010 (Rajesh Bindal) vs. Judge