RFA No. 1311 of 2011(O&M) 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH RFA No. 1311 of 2011(O&M) Date of Decision : 27.07.2011 Ashok and others ....Appellants Versus State of Haryana and others ....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR GARG 1. Whether reporters of local news papers may be allowed to see judgment ? 2. To be referred to reporters or not ? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest ? *** Present: Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Advocate for the appellants. Mr. Ashok Jindal, Addl. A.G., Haryana. * * * RAKESH KUMAR GARG, J (ORAL) This is claimants appeal challenging the impugned award passed by the reference Court on the ground that compensation determined was inadequate. This appeal has been filed after a delay of 524 days along with this appeal an application has been filed for condoning the aforesaid delay. Averments in this regard reads as follows: - That the delay of 524 days has occurred due to inevitable circumstances which were beyond the control of the applicants. The award in the present case was passed by learned reference court while relying upon an earlier award dated 28.2.2009 passed in case titled as Vijay Singh and others V/s State of Haryana. The applicants after getting the certified copy RFA No. 1311 of 2011(O&M) 2 talked to clerk of their counsel before the Reference Court for filing the appeal in the Hon'ble High Court. The clerk without consulting the matter with the counsel for the applicants before the Reference Court told that since present reference has been decided relying upon an earlier award dated 28.2.2009 passed in the case titled as Vijay Singh & Others V/s State of Haryana, applications shall be entitled to the compensation what-ever is finally determined in Vijay Singh's case. The applicants, therefore, did not file further appeal for enhancement in this Hon'ble Court. That vide award dated 28.2.2009 the Reference Court had decided number of reference petitions, the main award was, however, passed in the case titled as Vijay Singh & others V/s State of Haryana. Against award dated 28.2.2009 various land owners as HSIDC both filed the appeals in this Hon'ble Court. All those appeals have been decided by this Hon'ble Court vide order dated 14.9.2010 passed in RFA No. 3540 of 2006. The Hon'ble Court vide order dated 14.9.2010 passed in RFA No. 3540 of 2006 has enhanced the compensation for the acquired land payable to the land owners. That after the appeals filed against the award dated 28.2.2009 were decided by this Hon'ble Court, the applicants approached their counsel before the Reference Court to get the same compensation which was assessed by this Hon'ble Court in RFA No. 3540 of 2006. Thereafter, it was only then that the counsel told them that they should file appeal in this Hon'ble Court for enhancement of compensation if they were not satisfied with the award of the Reference Court. The applicants immediately rushed to the High Court and engaged the undersigned counsel for filing the appeal. The undersigned counsel prepared the Memorandum of Appeal and filed the same on 29.11.2010. By that time a delay of 524 days has occurred. A perusal of the aforesaid averments would show that the appellants were not pursuing their remedy diligently, as they have relied RFA No. 1311 of 2011(O&M) 3 upon the advise of Clerk of the lower Court and have not even bothered to discuss the matter with the counsel for filing the appeal, who was representing them in the Trial Court. The appellants have failed to give any explanation in this regard. Moreover, RFA No. 3540 of 2006, arising out of the same acquisition proceedings has already been decided by this Court on 14.09.2010 and this appeal has been filed only thereafter along with the application for condonation of delay. Thus, the plea taken by the appellants is not bona fide and hardly sufficient for condoning the delay. Prayer for condonation of delay is rejected. Consequently the appeal which is time barred is also dismissed. 27.7.2011 (Rakesh Kumar Garg) savita Judge