R.F.A. No. 3314 of 2010 [1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH R.F.A. No. 3314 of 2010 (O&M) Date of decision: 6.12.2011 Gram Panchayat, Deva .. Appellant. Vs. State of Haryana and others .. Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BINDAL Present: Mr. K. S. Dhanora and Mr. Vivek Khatri, Advocate for the land owners. Mr. Ashish Gupta, Assistant Advocate General, Haryana. ... Rajesh Bindal J. This order will dispose of R.F.A. Nos. 3314, 5119 to 5125 of 2010, as common questions of law and facts are involved. The land owners are in appeal seeking further enhancement of compensation awarded by the learned court below for the acquired land. The facts have been extracted from R.F.A. No. 3314 of 2010. Briefly, the facts of the case are that vide notification dated 17.11.2003, issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, `the Act'), State of Haryana sought to acquire land situated in villages Deva and Kaimri, Hadbast No. 165, Tehsil and District Hissar for construction of Ghaggar Multi Purpose Channel. The same was followed by notification dated 26.4.2004, issued under Section 6 of the Act. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short, `the Collector') awarded compensation @ ` 1,40,000/- per acre for Nehri kind of land and ` 1,00,000/- per acre for Tal/Banjar land. Vide supplementary awards dated 8.5.2007 and 30.4.2007 of villages Kaimri and Deva respectively, the R.F.A. No. 3314 of 2010 [2] Collector assessed the compensation for the acquired land @ ` 5,00,000/- per acre irrespective of the kind of land. Dissatisfied with the award of the Collector, the land owners filed objections. On reference under Section 18 of the Act, the learned court below dismissed the petitions. Learned counsel for the land owners submitted that the learned court below has failed to appreciate that the land in question is located quite close to Hissar city. The aforesaid fact has been totally ignored while assessing compensation for the acquired land. However, he was not able to site any sale deed produced by the land owners before the court below to show the value of land in the area. Learned counsel for the State submitted that the Collector vide its award dated 16.3.2005 and 24.3.2005 of villages Deva and Kaimri respectively had initially assessed the value of acquired land @ ` 1,40,000/- per acre for Nehri land and ` 1,00,000/- per acre for Tal/Banjar kind of land. However, considering the circular issued by the Government of Haryana vide memo dated 28.4.2005 providing for assessment of compensation at the minimum rate of ` 5,00,000/- per acre for acquisition of land in the State irrespective of its location and quality in all cases where the award of the Collector is after 5.3.2005, the Collector had revised the earlier award and passed a supplementary awards on 30.4.2007 and 8.5.2007 of villages Deva and Kaimri, respectively assessing compensation for the acquired land @ ` 5,00,000/- per acre. As there is no evidence produced by the land owners on record to make out a case for enhancement of compensation, the award of the court below does not call for any interference. After hearing learned counsel for the parties and considering the fact that there is no sale deed produced on record by the land owners to show the market value of the land at the time of its acquisition. Mere oral statement that the land is quite close to Hissar city is not relevant in isolation for assessment of compensation as demanded by the land owners in the absence of any supporting evidence. The Collector in the present case was fair enough to assess the market value of the land @ ` 5,00,000/- per acre in terms of the circular issued by the government on 28.4.2005, vide which for all awards announced by the Collector for acquisition of R.F.A. No. 3314 of 2010 [3] land after 5.3.2005, the value of land had to be assessed at the minimum rate of ` 5,00,000/- per acre. There being no other evidence, the award of the learned court below does not call for any interference. Accordingly, the appeals are dismissed. ( Rajesh Bindal ) Judge 6.12.2011 mk