R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990 [1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of decision: November 17 , 2008 (1) RFA No. 1372 of 1990 Gram Panchayat, Village Gudha ....Appellant Versus Union of India and others ...Respondents (2) RFA No. 1373 of 1990 Hukam Chand (deceased) through LRs and others ....Appellant Versus Union of India and others ...Respondents (3) RFA No. 1580 of 1990 Nafe Singh and others ....Appellants Versus Union of India and others ...Respondents (4) RFA No. 1911 of 1990 Sardha Ram and others ....Appellants Versus Union of India and others ...Respondents (5) RFA No. 2170 of 1990 Smt. Sunghi Devi and others ....Appellants Versus Union of India and others ...Respondents R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990 [2] CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BINDAL Present: Mr. Hitesh Pandit, Advocate for Mr. Rajesh Garg, Advocate for the appellants in R.F.A. Nos. 1372, 1373 and 1580 of 1990. Mr. Virender Gulia, Advocate for Mr. Vikram Dhakla, Advocate for the appellants in R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990. Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Additional Advocate General, Haryana for the State. Rajesh Bindal J. This order shall dispose of a bunch of 5 appeals, as the same arise out of a common acquisition. The land owners are in appeal against the award of the learned court below seeking further enhancement of compensation for the acquired land. The facts have been noticed from R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990. Briefly, the facts are that vide notification dated 6.6.1985, issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, `the Act'), the State of Haryana acquired 68 acres, 7 kanals and 11 marlas of land situated at Village Guda, District Karnal for the construction of L.P.G. Bottling Plant. The same was followed by notification dated 30.7.1985, issued under Section 6 of the Act. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short, `the Collector') determined the market value of land at Rs. 35,000/- per acre for chahi/nehri land; Rs. 15,000/- per acre for gair mumkin land and Rs. 20,000/- per acre for Banjar Qadim land. Aggrieved against the same, the land owners filed objections which were referred to the learned Additional District Judge, Karnal, who keeping in view the material placed on record by the parties, upheld the award of the Collector. Learned counsel for the appellants submitted that the learned court below has not considered the fact that CSSRI agriculture farm, Gudha is situated just opposite the acquired land. The distance of the acquired land from G.T. Road has not been considered at all which is approximately 4 kilometers. The same is situated on the road leading from G.T. Road to Assandh. Panipat Refinery, for which acquisition was made almost at the same time, is situated at a distance of 5 kilometers ahead of the acquired land. The compensation, as assessed by the learned court below, is not in consonance with the material placed on record by the appellants. It was further submitted that even the Collector in his award had R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990 [3] mentioned that average sale price per acre of nehri and chahi land was Rs. 56,000/-, whereas the award was given @ Rs. 35,000/- per acre. The submission was that even if the transaction, on the basis of which the average price was determined at Rs. 56,000/- per acre for one kanal of land, which was sold on 14.5.1984, the same can very well be relied upon. On the other hand, learned counsel for the State submitted that fair assessment of the value of the acquired land was made by the Collector, which was rightly upheld by the learned court below, as the appellants had failed to produce on record any evidence to show that the value of the land, as determined by the Collector in the award, deserved increase. He further submitted that the Refinery, which is situated at a distance of about 5 kilometers from the acquired land, where the acquisition was carried on 25.3.1985, this Court in R.F.A. No. 2612 of 1991-- Balkar Singh and another v. State of Haryana and others, decided on 14.11.2003, determined the compensation @ Rs. 26,624/- per acre for nehri/chahi, Rs. 13,333/- per acre for barani and Rs. 6,650-/- per acre for banjar kind of land. The submission is that keeping in view the distance of the land in question from G.T. Road, which is less than the distance of the land of Panipat Refinery, fair amount of compensation has been paid to the land owners at Rs. 35,000/- per acre for chahi kind of land as against Rs. 26,624/- per acre for chahi kind of land for acquisition for the Refinery. Heard learned counsel for the parties and with their assistance perused the relevant referred record. From a perusal of the record, it is evident that the appellants did not produce any evidence in the form of sale deed to show the fair value of the land at the time of acquisition in the area. An application for leading additional evidence was filed in R.F.A. No. 1372 of 1990 with which a sale deed pertaining to 4 kanals of land, situated in village Kohand, sold at an average price of Rs. 76,000/- per acre was placed on record. There is no site plan on record to show the location of the land pertaining to this sale deed. A perusal of the site plan (Ex. P1) on record shows that village Kohand is situated just quite close to G.T. Road. Railway Station, Kohand is, in fact, just on the G.T. Road. Though in the absence of location of the land forming part of the sale deed produced on record with an application for additional evidence, it cannot as such be considered for the purpose of determination of fair value of the acquired land, but still considering the fact that village Kohand is located close to G.T. Road, the land under acquisition in the present case is located at a distance of 4 kilometers from the G.T. Road and Panipat Refinery is located 5 kilometers thereafter, the value of land even in three R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990 [4] instances available before this Court also shows the same trend. The value of the land, as is shown in the sale deed, produced by the appellants with an application for additional evidence, shows the value at Rs. 76,000/- per acre, whereas the value of chahi land in the present case, as assessed by the Collector is Rs. 35,000/- per acre. For the land of village Bohli, which was acquired for the purpose of Refinery, it was assessed at Rs. 26,624/- per acre. Keeping the aforesaid facts in view and also that it is a case of no evidence, I do not find that any illegality has been committed by the learned court below in upholding the award of the Collector. Accordingly, the appeals are dismissed. (Rajesh Bindal) Judge November 17, 2008 mk R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990 [5]