R. F. A. No. 852 of 1988 1 In the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh Date of decision : 19.9.2008 1. R. F. A. No. 852 of 1988 (O&M) The State of Punjab and others ..... Appellants vs Sukhdev Singh and others ... Respondents 2. R. F. A. No. 853 of 1988 (O&M) The State of Punjab and others ..... Appellants vs Suriana ... Respondent 3. R. F. A. No. 854 of 1988 (O&M) The State of Punjab and others ..... Appellants vs Ravail Singh ... Respondent 4. R. F. A. No. 855 of 1988 (O&M) The State of Punjab and another ..... Appellants vs Smt. Jitto ... Respondent 5. R. F. A. No. 856 of 1988 (O&M) The State of Punjab and others ..... Appellants vs Smt. Kashmiro ... Respondents Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal Present: Mr. B. B. S. Teji, Assistant Advocate General, Punjab. Rajesh Bindal J. This order will dispose of five Regular First Appeals No. 852, 853, 854, 855, and 856 of 1988, as these are arising out of same acquisition. The State of Punjab has filed the present appeals against the award dated 30.10.1987 of learned Additional District Judge, Amritsar, passed in acquisition proceedings. Briefly the facts are that the land of the respondents was acquired by the State by issuing notification under Section 4 of the Land R. F. A. No. 852 of 1988 2 Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, 'the Act') on 9.5.1980. The Land Acquisition Collector announced the award on 14.10.1983, determining the value of the land as under :- (i) Chahi Rs. 7,500/- per acre (ii) Barani Rs. 4,000/- per acre (iii) Sailabi Rs. 4,000/- per acre (iv) Abi Rs. 4,000/- per acre (v) Banjar Qadim Rs. 3,000/- per acre (vi) Gair Mumkin Rs. 1,000/- per acre In reference under Section 18 of the Act, the learned court below determined the compensation @ of Rs. 20,000/- per acre for chahi, Rs. 12,000/- per acre for barani/abi/sailabi and Rs. 6,000/- per acre for banjar qadim/gair mumkin type of land. Learned counsel for the appellants submitted that the value of the land as determined by the learned court below is not in conformity with the evidence on record. In fact, the Collector had rightly assessed the value thereof which deserved to be upheld. He further submitted that the landowners were not entitled to benefit under Section 23 (1A) of the Act which has wrongly been granted by the learned court below. Heard learned counsel for the appellants and perused the record. A perusal of the award of the learned court below shows that while determining the fair value of the land, reliance was placed on sale- deeds produced by the landowners showing the value of the land to be about Rs. 15,000/- per acre which was proved to be of inferior in quality. As against that the State had only produced on record the mutations which as such could not be relied upon for the purpose of determination of fair value of the land. Considering the sale-deeds Ex. A-1 and AW3/1 showing sale of 8 kanals 5 marlas and 7 kanals 11 marlas of land where the average price was Rs. 17,300/- and Rs. 16,000/- per acre and further sale-deeds of similar transactions the value of different kinds of land was assessed by the learned court below. In the absence of any evidence led by the appellants, in my opinion, learned court below did not commit any illegality in determining the fair value of the land under acquisition considering the evidence led by the landowners. Accordingly, the award to that extent is upheld. R. F. A. No. 852 of 1988 3 As far as the challenge to the grant of benefit under Section 23 (1A) of the Act is concerned, the relevant dates are noticed again. Notification under Section 4 of the Act was issued on 9.5.1980 and the award by the Collector was pronounced on 14.10.1983. As the date of the award of the Collector falls within the transactional period namely when the Amendment Act of 1984 was introduced on 30.4.1982 and when the same was passed on 24.9.1984, the learned court below has not committed any illegality even in granting benefits of the provisions of Section 23 (1-A) of the Act to the respondents. Accordingly, the appeals are dismissed. 19.9.2008 ( Rajesh Bindal) vs. Judge