R.F.A. No. 1816 of 1995 [1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH R.F.A. No. 1816 of 1995 Date of decision: February 18 , 2009 Mohan Singh (deceased) through LRs and others ... Appellants v. Union of India and others .. Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BINDAL Present: Mr. G. S. Nagra, Advocate for the appellants. Mr. C.M. Sharma, Advocate for Union of India. Rajesh Bindal J. The land owners are in appeal seeking further enhancement of compensation for the acquired land. Briefly, the facts of the case are that Union of India vide notification dated 25.3.1988, issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, `the Act'), acquired the land situated in villages Sarai Khas and Mari Harnia, District Jalandhar for establishment of the Group Centre of ITBP at Villages Sarai Khas and Mari Harnia. The same was followed by notification dated 8.4.1988 issued under Section 6 of the Act. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short, `the Collector') assessed the market value of the land at Rs. 70,000/- per acre for chahi land and Rs. 35,000/- per acre for gair mumkin kind of land. . On reference under Section 18 of the Act, the learned court below assessed the market value of the acquired land @ Rs. 1,60,000/- per acre on G.T. Road upto the depth of 100 karams and @ Rs. 1,10,000/- per acre beyond that. Learned counsel for the land owners submitted that the learned court below has gone wrong in assessing the value of the acquired land by dividing the same into two categories, namely, the land abutting G.T. Road upto 100 karams and land abutting thereafter. The submission is that considering the fact that the land is located near the already developed or fast developing area on the outer skirts of Jalandhar towards Kartarpur, the entire land should have been valued at R.F.A. No. 1816 of 1995 [2] the same rate doing away with the categorisation. Learned counsel for the land owners has further pointed out that the learned court below had relied upon the award pertaining to the acquisition for Government Engineering College in the vicinity for the purpose of assessment of compensation for the acquired land. In that case, this Court in R.F.A. No. 1859 of 1990—Gurbax Singh (through LRs) v. State of Punjab and others, decided on 13.10.2006, had assessed the value of the entire land @ Rs. 1,60,000/- per acre while setting aside the award of the learned court below providing for belting system. On the other hand, learned counsel Union of India submitted that the contention raised by learned counsel for the land owners is not justifiable on any ground, as the land abutting national highway will certainly carry more value, as compared to the land behind it. In the present case, the learned court below has awarded compensation @ Rs. 1,60,000/- per acre for the land situated on G.T. Road upto a depth of 100 karams, whereas for the land beyond that, the compensation has been assessed at Rs. 1,10,000/- per acre and therefore, no fault can be found therewith. However, learned counsel did not dispute the fact that this Court had earlier directed for assessment of the value of the entire chunk of land acquired for Government Engineering College at the same rate in Gurbax Singh's case (supra). Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the record. The fact that the land, which was acquired for purpose of setting up of Government Engineering College is situated in the vicinity of the land in question and that the learned court below for the purpose of determination of fair value of the acquired land relied upon its earlier award pertaining to that land, is not disputed. The fact remains that this Court in Gurbax Singh's case (supra) had set aside the award of the learned court below, whereby the compensation was assessed by applying belting system, and held that the entire chunk of land should be assessed at flat rate of Rs. 1,60,000/- per acre. There was no evidence produced by the land owners on record to show that there was any increase in the prices of the land in the area during the intervening period, when the land was acquired for Government Engineering College and the acquisition in the present case. Once that is so and the respondents having not disputed the basis on which compensation for the acquired land has been determined, I find no reason to differ with the view expressed by this Court in Gurbax Singh's case (supra) and accordingly for the entire chunk of land, the compensation is assessed at Rs. 1,60,000/- per acre by setting aside the belting system provided by the learned court below. The land owners shall also be entitled to all statutory benefits R.F.A. No. 1816 of 1995 [3] available under the Act. The appeal is disposed of in the above terms. (Rajesh Bindal) Judge February 18, 2009 mk