RFA No. 2873 of 2002 1 IN THE PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT AT CHANDIGARH RFA No. 2873 of 2002 (O&M) Date of Decision: 26.05.2011 Roop Chand and others ...Appellants Versus State of Haryana and others ..Respondents CORAM: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal Present: Mr. Sunil Panwar, Advocate and Mr. A.K. Singal, Advocate for the landowners. Mr. Ashish Gupta, Assistant Advocate General, Haryana. ..... RAJESH BINDAL, J. This order shall dispose of a set of appeals bearing RFA Nos. 2873, 2914, 2973 to 2985 of 2002, 7 to 18, 134 to 140, 504 to 506 of 2004, as common questions of law and facts are involved therein. 2. Challenge in the present appeals is to the awards dated 16.03.2002 and 06.10.2003 passed by the learned Additional District Judge, Rewari. Landowners have filed appeals before this court seeking enhancement of compensation for the acquired land whereas State has filed appeals seeking reduction thereof. 3. Briefly, the facts of the case are that State Government vide notification dated 09.12.1997, issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, 'the Act'), sought to acquire land situated in the revenue estates of villages Baliar Khurd, Jonawas, Rojhka and Phadni Tehsil and District Rewari for construction of extension of Jeetpur distributory from KM-4.750 to 7.518. Notification under Section 6 of the Act was issued on 13.1.1998. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short, “the Collector”) vide his different awards, assessed the market value of the acquired land pertaining to the aforesaid villages as under:- RFA No. 2873 of 2002 2 Date of Award Village Type of land Rate (per acre) (in ` ) 11.11.1998 Phadni Chahi 1,50,000/- Bhur 1,10,000/- Magda 1,30,000/- 9.6.1999 Baliar Khurd Chahi and Gair Mumkin 1,50,000/- 9.6.1999 Jonawas Chahi 1,50,000/- Bhud 1,10,000/- 4.8.1999 Rojhka Chahi and Gair Mumkin 1,80,000/- Dissatisfied with the award of the Collector, the landowners filed objections. On reference under Section 18 of Act, the learned court below dismissed some of the petitions and in some petitions the compensation for the acquired land was assessed @ ` 5,50,000/- per acre. 4. Learned counsel for the landowners submitted that considering the location of the land learned court below has not assessed the value thereof. It is located close to city of Rewari and road leading from Rewari to Delhi. Acquisition for construction of distributories, namely, Raliawas Distributory and Nikhri Distributory was also made at the same time, where notification under Section 4 of the Act was issued on 18.12.1997 and on 2.4.1998, respectively. This court in RFA No.872 of 2003 titled as State of Haryana and others Vs. Mahesh Kumar, decided on 1.11.2010 for Raliawas Distributory had assessed value of the acquired land @ ` 6,50,000/- per acre. For Nikhri Distributory pertaining to the land in the villages Dungarwas, Masani, Khijuri, Rasgan, the value was assessed at ` 6,50,000/- per acre in RFA No.871 of 2003 titled as State of Haryana Vs. Asha Ram decided on 15.12.2010. 5. The submission of the landowners was that the land acquired for the purpose of construction of aforesaid two distributories was also RFA No. 2873 of 2002 3 located in the nearby villages, hence, the aforesaid awards should be relied upon for the purpose of assessment of fair value of the acquired land. In support of the aforesaid submission, learned counsel for the landowners also referred to sale deeds pertaining to land of adjoining villages to justify the claim made by the landowners as value thereof is in similar lines. 6. On the other hand, learned counsel for the respondents submitted that no evidence was produced by the landowners on record and considering the sale deeds produced by the State the award of the Collector deserves to be upheld. In fact, in a bunch of cases decided by the learned court below earlier pertaining to land of villages Rojhka, Jonawas and Baliar Khurd, the award of the Collector was upheld. However, when a bunch of cases subsequently came up for consideration before the learned court below pertaining to land of villages Rojhka and Phadni, the compensation was enhanced. He further submitted that the awards pertaining to the land of neighbouring villages could be relied upon only in case there is no evidence produced by the parties on record. In the present case both landowners and State had produced evidence on record, which should be considered independently and the judgments of this court pertaining to land of other neighbouring villages should not be relied upon. 7. Heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the relevant record. 8. As far as the location of the land is concerned, learned counsel for the State has produced in court plan named as Index Plan prepared by Superintending Engineer, J.L.N. Water Services Circle, Rewari showing location of Raliawas Distributory, Nikhri Distributory and Jeetpur Distributory. The valuation of land acquired for the purpose of Nikhri Distributory and Raliawas Distributory was subject matter of appeals before this court in Asha Ram and Mahesh Kumar’s cases (supra), where notification under Section 4 was issued on 2.4.1998 and 18.12.1997, respectively. The valuation of land acquired for construction of Jeetpur Distributory is subject matter of present bunch of appeals. 9. A perusal of the plan shows that the land pertaining to Raliawas Distributory is located at a far off place from Rewari town RFA No. 2873 of 2002 4 whereas land pertaining to Nikhri Distributory and Jeetpur Distributory are almost joint at one place close to City Rewari and then proceed towards Delhi side. Nikhri Distributory has been planned in the manner that it is in the form of a half circle going away from Rewari-Delhi road and then joining the same in the revenue estate of village Masani, whereas Jeetpur Distributory is running parallel to Rewari-Delhi road. Village Masani is even beyond the place where Jeetpur Distributory ends towards Delhi from Rewari. This court in Asha Ram’s case (supra) pertaining to acquisition of land for Nikhri Distributory, which included land of revenue estate of village Masani had assessed the compensation @ ` 6,50,000/- per acre. Notification under Section 4 of the Act in that case was issued on 2.4.1998. 10. As noticed above, the revenue estate of village Masani is away from the City Rewari towards Delhi side whereas other villages are located close to Rewari town. 11. One sale deed Ex.PW1/A dated 15.7.1998 has been produced by the landowners in LAC No.94 of 2001, whereby 3 kanals of land in village Rojhka was sold for a sale consideration of ` 2,40,000/- i.e. ` 6,40,000/- per acre. The aforesaid sale deed was registered seven months after the issuance of notification under Section 4 of the Act in the present case. Sale deeds Ex.D1 to D-8 produced by the Sate are merely to be noticed and rejected considering the fact that all of them except Ex.D2, were registered after issuance of notification. Even otherwise price range shown therein is evident of the fact that the sale consideration paid therein was not correctly recorded, apparently with a view to avoid payment of stamp duty. In sale deed Ex.D-5 registered on 5.5.1998 pertaining to land of village Rojhka average sale consideration was merely ` 20,000/- per acre, whereas at the same time there is a sale deed Ex.D-4 dated 7.8.1998 of the same village the average sale consideration paid is ` 1,65,000/- per acre. 12. Considering the location of the land and also the fact that for the land acquired for the construction of Nikhri Distributory vide notification dated 2.4.1998 this court assessed value at ` 6,50,000/- per acre in Asha Ram’s case (supra) including the land pertaining to revenue estate RFA No. 2873 of 2002 5 of village Masani, which is adjoining to the land acquired for the purpose of construction of Jeetpur Distributory and also the fact that the value as assessed by the Collector in the present case was lesser than the value assessed for the land acquired for Nikhri Distributory, in my opinion, the assessment of compensation by the learned court below in some of the cases @ ` 5,50,000/- per acre deserves to be upheld. Consequently, the appeals filed by the State in those cases are dismissed. However, the cases where the land references were dismissed by the learned court below, the appeals filed by the landowners are accepted and the compensation is assessed @ ` 5,50,000/- per acre along with statutory benefits under the Act. 13. The appeals are disposed of, in the manner indicated above. (RAJESH BINDAL) JUDGE 26.05.2011 sharmila