Regular First Appeal No. 3692 of 1992 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Regular First Appeal No. 3692 of 1992 Date of decision : December 04, 2009 State of Punjab and others ....Appellants versus Lakhmo ....Respondent Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice L.N. Mittal Present : Mr. HS Gill, DAG Punjab for the appellants None for the respondent L.N. Mittal, J. (Oral) By this common order, I am disposing of 10 appeals i.e. RFA No. 3692 of 1992, titled “State of Punjab & others versus Lakhmo”, RFA No. 3693 of 1992, titled “State of Punjab & others versus Rasalo”, RFA No. 3694 of 1992, titled “State of Punjab & others versus Dhanpat”, RFA No. 3695 of 1992, titled “State of Punjab & others versus Dharam Singh”, RFA No. 3696 of 1992, titled “State of Punjab & others versus Bhagat Ram”, RFA No. 3697 of 1992, titled “State of Punjab & others versus Puran Chand”, RFA No. 3698 of 1992, titled “State of Punjab & others versus Bhagu”, RFA No. 3699 of 1992, titled “State of Punjab & others versus Regular First Appeal No. 3692 of 1992 -2- Saini & Saffi”, RFA No. 3700 of 1992, titled “State of Punjab & others versus Bhagat Ram” and RFA No. 3701 of 1992, titled “State of Punjab & others versus Gammi”, as all these appeals have been preferred against common award dated 30.11.1991 passed by learned Additional District Judge, Gurdaspur, whereby 10 reference petitions filed by respondents under section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (in short, the Act) were disposed of. State of Punjab vide notification No. 34849/2RSDW/603/S- II/70 dated 7.11.1989 issued under section 4 of the Act and vide notification No. 5884/2RSDW/603/SII/79 dated 6.3.1990 under section 6 of the Act acquired 206.62 acres land in village Chamror, Hadbast No. 402, Tehsil Pathankot, District Gurdaspur, for public purpose i.e. for reservoir area of Ranjit Sagar Dam Project. Land Acquisition Collector, Ranjit Sagar Dam Project, Sharpur Kandi vide award no. 90 dated 24.10.1990 awarded compensation for the acquired land at the rate of Rs 9000/- for Barani-I, Rs 8000/- for Barani-II, Rs 7000/- for Barani-som., Rs 4000/- per acre for Banjar Jadid and Rs 5250/- per acre for Gair-Mumkin. Respondents-land owners whose land was included in the acquired land filed reference petitions under section 18 of the Act. Learned Additional District Judge, Gurdaspur vide impugned award dated 30.11.1991 enhanced the compensation to Rs 45,000/- per acre for all kinds of Barani land and Rs 20,000/- per acre for Gair Mumkin and Banjar Qadim land (acre consisting of 10½ kanals of land), along with statutory benefits in accordance with Act. Feeling aggrieved, these appeals have been preferred by State of Punjab. Regular First Appeal No. 3692 of 1992 -3- I have heard learned counsel for the appellants and perused the case file whereas none has appeared for the respondents. Respondents-land owners relied on sale deeds Ex. A/2 to A/9, which are tabulated as under:- Ex. Dated Village Area K. M. For Rupees Value per marla A2 01/07/88 Dhar Khurd 0-10 5000/- 500/- A3 20/6/89 Dhar Kalan 0-5 1000/- 200/- A4 05/01/90 Thara Uperla 252 ft. 2000/- 1750/- A5 21/8/87 Phangota 0-10 2000/- 200/- A6 29/12/89 Thara Uperla 0-8 4000/- 500/- A7 4/10/88 Thara Uperla 0-2 6000/- 3000/- A8 4/10/88 Thara Uperla 0-2 6000/- 3000/- A9 31/1/89 Thara Uperla 0-8 3500/- 438/- However, the aforesaid sale deeds cannot be taken into consideration for determining market value of the acquired land because these sale deeds pertain to other villages and not to village Chamror where the acquired land is situated. Even learned Reference Court has not placed reliance on these sale deeds. Villages Thara Uperla and Dhar Kalan are developed villages as per evidence brought on record, but village Chamror where the acquired land is situated is 4/5 kilometers away from the aforesaid developed villages as noticed in the impugned award of the Reference Court. Consequently, land in village Chamror would not have same potential as the land in developed villages Dhar Kalan and Thara Uperla. Consequently, the aforesaid sale deeds relied on by the land owners cannot be said to be comparable in terms of potential and therefore, cannot be taken into consideration to determine the market value of the Regular First Appeal No. 3692 of 1992 -4- acquired land. On the other hand, State of Punjab relied on two sale deeds, Ex. R/2 and R/3. Sale deed Ex. R/2 is of village Hardosaran and not of village Chamror where the acquired land is located. Moreover, according to the sale deed Ex. R/2, the sale price comes to Rs 6000/- per acre only which is even less than the market price assessed by the Land Acquisition Collector for all kinds of Barani land. Sale deed Ex. R/3 of course pertains to village Chamror where the acquired land is situated. However, according to this sale deed, sale price comes to about Rs 5700/- per acre which amount is less than the market value determined by the Land Acquisition Collector of all kinds of Barani land. Consequently, these sale deeds also can not be taken into consideration. Learned Additional District Judge in the impugned award referred to contention raised on behalf of land owners that the same court had already awarded compensation at the rate of Rs 35,000/- per acre for all kinds of Barani land and Rs 15,000/- per acre for Gair Mumkin and Banjar Qadim land of adjoining villages of Phangota and Thara Uperla and notification for acquiring the said land was issued in April, 1987 whereas notification in the instant cases under section 4 of the Act was issued in November, 1989. Consequently, on account of intervening period of two and half years, increase of about 30% has been allowed by the Reference Court for market value of Barani land and increase of 33% has been allowed for market value of Gair Mumkin and Banjar Qadim land over the compensation awarded for the land of adjoining villages Phangota and Thara Uperla. However, this approach of the Reference Court cannot be Regular First Appeal No. 3692 of 1992 -5- accepted. Copy of the award whereby Reference court awarded compensation for land of adjoining villages Phangota and Thara Uperla has not been placed on record in the instant cases. Moreover, as noticed hereinabove, village Thara Uperla is a developed village. There is colony of 10000 to 12000 houses in that village having all kinds of facilities. Village Chamror, where the acquired land is situated is 4/5 kilometers away from village Thara Uperla as noticed by learned Additional District Judge himself in the impugned award. Consequently, the compensation awarded for land of villages Thara Uperla and Phangota could not be made basis for determining market value of village Chamror, without any reduction. Land in village Thara Uperla is of great potential being a developed village on account of big colony consisting of 10000 to 12000 houses with all kinds of urban facilities. However, land in village Chamror which is at distance of 4/5 kilometers from Thara Uperla would not have the same potential as the land in village Thara Uperla. Potential of land for residential and commercial purposes changes considerably with even small distance. In the instant cases, no comparable sale instances have been placed on record by either side. Consequently, compensation determined by Reference Court for land of villages Thara Uperla and Phangota can be taken into consideration by making appropriate deduction/reduction and for this purpose, thumb rule has to be adopted to some extent. However, some increase has also to be taken into consideration keeping in view the difference of period of two and half years in the notifications for the land of villages Thara Uperla and Phangota (April, 1987) on the one hand and notification for acquired land of Chamror (November, 1989) in the instant Regular First Appeal No. 3692 of 1992 -6- cases, on the other hand. Keeping in view the aforesaid, I am of the considered opinion that 50% deduction would be appropriate keeping in view the potential of land in villages Thara Uperla and Phangota as compared to the potential of land of village Chamror. Accordingly, market price of the acquired land of village Chamror is determined to be Rs 22,500/- per acre for all kinds of acquired Barani land and Rs 10,000/- per acre for acquired Gair Mumkin and Banjar Qadim land of village Chamror (acre consisting of 10½ kanals of land). The respondents shall, of course, be entitled to all statutory benefits in accordance with section 23(1A), section 23(2) and section 28 of the Act. ( L.N. Mittal ) December 04, 2009 Judge 'dalbir'