IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. RFA 1001 of 1983 DATE OF DECISION : JANUARY 11, 2008 PUNJAB STATE ....... APPELLANT(S) VERSUS HARKISHAN SINGH .... RESPONDENT(S) CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AJAI LAMBA PRESENT: Mr.Anil Sharma, Sr.DAG, Punjab. Mr.Amarjit Markan, Advocate, for the respondent. AJAI LAMBA, J. (Oral) This Regular First Appeal requires assessment of market value of the land acquired in Village Kasba Roorkee, Tehsil and District Patiala. Notifications under Section 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short 'the Act') were issued on 3.3.1978, for a public purpose i.e. for construction of 36 Battalion (P.A.P. of Fort) Bahadurgarh. The Land Acquisition Collector gave the award on 5.6.1981 awarding compensation at the rate of Rs.23,100/- per acre. Reference under Section 18 of the Act was made, whereupon the market value of the land was assessed at Rs.52,500/- per acre by way of impugned award dated 1.6.1992. From the record, it transpires that the market value of the land RFA 1001 of 1983 2 came to be assessed while dealing with RFA No.1512 of 1982 (Jagjit Singh v. State of Punjab and another) decided on 21.9.1985. Having considered the matter, the award passed by the District Judge was upheld and the compensation at the rate of Rs.52,500/- was maintained. The operative part of the judgment reads as under:- “The learned counsel for the appellant-claimants further appears to be right in submitting that these claimants have to be allowed solatium and interest at the rates envisaged by the newly amended sections 23(2) and 28 of the Act, i.e., 30% and 15% respectively. Normally the claimants would have been allowed interest at the rate of 9% for the first year from the date of their dispossession subsequent to the pronouncement of the award, but since in the instant case as already pointed out above they were actually dispossessed on January 28, 1977 i.e., more than a year earlier to the publication of the notification under section4 of the Act on March 3, 1978, they have to be allowed interest at that rate, i.e., 15% with effect from January 28, 1977 itself. In addition to this they have also to be allowed additional payment at the rate of 12% per annum on the above noted market value (Rs.52500/- per acre) in view of the newly added sub-section (1-A) to section 23 of the Act, for the period March 3, 1978 to June 19, 1981, i.e., the date of the notification under section 4 of the Act and the date of the award by the Collector respectively. I order accordingly. They would also be paid proportionate costs of their appeals or cross-objections.” This appeal is also decided in the same terms as in Jagjit Singh's case (supra). January 11, 2008 ( AJAI LAMBA ) JUDGE