R.F.A. No. 4612 of 2001 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH R.F.A. No. 4612 of 2001 (O&M) Date of Decision: 27.1.2011 Smt. Chando @ Chand Kaur and another .... Appellants vs The State of Haryana and others .... Respondents Coram : Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal Present:- Mr. S. P. Khatri, and Mr. Surender Dhull, Advocates for the landowners. Mr. Dinesh Kumar Nagar, Advocate, for HUDA in RFA Nos. 628 and 629 of 2009. Mr. D. D. Gupta, Additional Advocate General, Haryana. RAJESH BINDAL, J This order will dispose of the appeals bearing RFA Nos. 4612 of 2001, 3264 of 2008, 628 and 629 of 2009, arising out of common acquisition. The landowners have filed appeals seeking enhancement of compensation for the acquired land, whereas by filing appeal the Haryana Urban Development Authority is seeking reduction thereof. Briefly the facts are that vide notification dated 17.5.1990 issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, 'the Act') the State of Haryana acquired land in the revenue estate of villages Sultanpur and Fazilpur, Tehsil and District Panipat for development and utilisation thereof as residential and commercial area in Sector-12, Sonepat. The same was followed by notification dated 16.5.1991 issued under Section 6 of the Act. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short, 'the Collector') assessed the market value of land of different villages at different rates. Dissatisfied with the award of the Collector, the landowners filed objections. On reference under Section 18 of the Act, the learned court R.F.A. No. 4612 of 2001 -2- below determined the market value of the acquired land of village Sultanpur @ ` 100/- per square yard and ` 120/- per square yard for the land of village Fazilpur. Aggrieved against the award of learned Court below, the parties are in appeal before this Court. Learned counsel for the landowners submitted that the issues raised in the present set of appeals are squarely covered by judgment of Hon'ble the Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No. 3677 of 2010- Udho Dass vs State of Haryana and others, decided on 21.4.2010, whereby the compensation for the acquired land was enhanced to ` 225/- per square yard. Learned counsels for the State and Haryana Urban Development Authority did not dispute the aforesaid factual position. Since this court had further enhanced the compensation payable to the landowners, the appeals filed by the Haryana Urban Development Authority do not survive. Accordingly, for the reasons recorded in Udho Dass's case (supra), the same are dismissed, whereas the appeals filed by the landowners are disposed of in the terms of Udho Dass's case (supra). To ensure that the landowners are not fleeced by the middleman in the process of disbursement of enhanced compensation, Hon'ble the Supreme Court in a recent judgment in Civil Appeal No. 6515 of 2009 Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation vs Pran Sukh and others decided on 17.8.2010, issued certain directions. I deem it appropriate to issue the same directions in the present set of appeals as well. The same are as under:- “With a view to ensure that the land owners are not fleeced by the middleman, we deem it proper to issue following further directions: (i) The Land Acquisition Collector shall depute officers subordinate to him not below the rank of Naib Tehsildar, who shall get in touch with all the land owners and/or their legal representatives and inform them about their entitlement and right to receive enhanced compensation. (ii) The concerned officers shall also instruct R.F.A. No. 4612 of 2001 -3- the land owners and/or their legal representatives to open saving bank account in case they already do not have such account. (iii) The bank account numbers of the land owners should be given to the Land Acquisition Collector within three months. (iv) The Land Acquisition Collector shall deposit the cheques of compensation in the bank accounts of the land owners.” 27.1.2011. (Rajesh Bindal) vs. Judge