R.F.A. No.1918 of 1999 [1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of decision: November 5 ,2008 1 R.F.A. No. 146 of 1999 Rishi Pal and another ....Appellants Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 2 R.F.A. No.1652 of 1999 Smt. Savitri Devi ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 3 R.F.A. No.1742 of 1999 Gurcharan Singh ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 4 R.F.A. No.1743 of 1999 Balwan Singh ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and another ....Respondents 5 R.F.A. No.1918 of 1999 Shiv Kumar and others ....Appellants Vs. Haryana State and another ....Respondents 6 R.F.A. No.1940 of 1999 Nagini Devi and others ....Appellants Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents R.F.A. No.1918 of 1999 [2] 7 R.F.A. No.1941 of 1999 Sat Pal and another ....Appellants Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 8 R.F.A. No.2226 of 1999 Surinder Singh ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 9 R.F.A. No.2244 of 1999 Norang Singh and others ....Appellants Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 10 R.F.A. No.2712 of 1999 Balbir Singh and others ....Appellants Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 11 R.F.A. No.2800 of 1999 Sucha Singh ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 12 R.F.A. No.2801 of 1999 Sartaj Singh and another ....Appellants Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 13 R.F.A. No.2802 of 1999 Satpal ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents R.F.A. No.1918 of 1999 [3] 14 R.F.A. No.2803 of 1999 Raj Singh and others ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 15 R.F.A. No.3007 of 1999 Lakhvinder Singh and another ....Appellants Vs. Haryana State and others ....Respondents 16 R.F.A. No.3053 of 1999 Indira Rani ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 17 R.F.A. No.3054 of 1999 Nirmala Rani and others ....Appellants Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 18 R.F.A. No.3131 of 1999 Dalip Singh ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 19 R.F.A. No.3132 of 1999 Jaimal Singh ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 20 R.F.A. No.3133 of 1999 Dharam Singh and others ....Appellants Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents R.F.A. No.1918 of 1999 [4] 21 R.F.A. No.3134 of 1999 Rajinder Singh ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 22 R.F.A. No.3209 of 1999 Sandeep Singh ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 23 R.F.A. No.3210 of 1999 Sandeep Singh ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 24 R.F.A. No.3211 of 1999 Smt. Sheela Devi ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 25 R.F.A. No.3212 of 1999 Smt. Sheela Devi ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 26 R.F.A. No.3444 of 1999 Dalel Singh ....Appellant Vs. Haryana State and another ....Respondents 27 R.F.A. No.3445 of 1999 Roshni Devi ....Appellant Vs. Haryana State and another ....Respondents R.F.A. No.1918 of 1999 [5] 28 R.F.A. No.3704 of 1999 Smt. Sheela Devi ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 29 R.F.A. No.166 of 2000 Thakur Dawara Ram Kishan Dass (deceased) through his LRs ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 30 R.F.A. No.658 of 2000 Rishi Pal ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 31 R.F.A. No.659 of 2000 Smt., Kirpal Kaur and others ....Appellants Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 32 R.F.A. No.954 of 2000 Ranbir ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 33 R.F.A. No.966 of 2000 Smt. Savitri Devi and others ....Appellants Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 34 R.F.A. No.1229 of 2000 Anita Rani and others ....Appellants Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents R.F.A. No.1918 of 1999 [6] 35 R.F.A. No.2562 of 2000 Pali Ram ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 36 R.F.A. No.2563 of 2000 Sher Singh ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 37 R.F.A. No.824 of 2001 Smt. Parwati Devi ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 38 R.F.A. No.1730 of 2001 Parwati Devi ....Appellant Vs. State of Haryana and others ....Respondents 39 R.F.A. No.1731 of 2001 Parwati Devi ....Appellant Vs. Umrao Singh and others ....Respondents 40 R.F.A. No.1732 of 2001 Parwati Devi ....Appellant Vs. Vijay Singh and others ....Respondents R.F.A. No.1918 of 1999 [7] CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BINDAL Present: S/Shri Jagdish Manchanda, Vikram Singh, Ranjit Saini, Ram Chander and B.S. Bedi, Advocates for the land owners. Mr. Sumeet Goel, Advocate for the appellants in R.F.A. No. 2244 of 1999 and for respondents No.1 to 4 in R.F.A. No. 363 of 1999. Mr. K.S. Malik, Advocate for HUDA in R.F.A. Nos. 3132 and 3134 of 1999. Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Additional Advocate General, Haryana for the State. Rajesh Bindal J. This order will dispose of a bunch of above mentioned 41 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 enhancement in the compensation for the acquired land. The facts have been extracted from R.F.A. No.1918 of 1999. Briefly, the facts are that vide notification dated 1.4.1994, issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, `the Act'), State of Haryana acquired 52 acres of land situated in Had Bast No.1 of Kasba Karnal for setting up sewerage treatment works at Karnal. The same was followed by notification dated 5.4.1994 issued under Section 6 of the Act. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short, `the Collector') vide his award dated 20.2.1995, determined the market value at Rs. 2,40,000/- per acre. The learned Additional District Judge, on reference under Section 18 of the Act, upheld the award of the Collector. Learned counsel for the appellants submitted that the learned Court below has failed to appreciate the fact that the land forming part of Sectors 4 and 5 which was acquired vide notification dated 8.2.1989 is situated just in close vicinity of the acquired land which, in fact, was for the purpose of setting up of Sewerage Treatment Plant for various sectors developed by Haryana Urban Development Authority (for short, `HUDA'). The distance of the acquired land from the G.T. road is just 10 acres. Abutting G.T. road, Sector 4 is situated and just behind that the acquired land is located. The land in question was acquired vide notification dated 1.4.1994. Initially, for the land pertaining to Sectors 4 and 5, the learned Reference Court determined the value of the land at Rs. 90/- per square yard, which was further enhanced to Rs. 147.68 paise per square yard vide judgment dated 17.12.2004 in L.P.A.No. 704 of 1999-- Brij Mohan and another v. R.F.A. No.1918 of 1999 [8] The State of Haryana in R.F.A. No. 742 of 1994. Placing reliance thereon, the submission is that the land is situated in the close vicinity and the value should be assessed at the same rate by granting further increase for the time gap in the two notifications which is nearly five years, as the present acquisition was five years later. As far as other evidence on record is concerned, though sale deeds (Ex. PB to Ex. PH) have been produced, but the same have been wrongly discarded by the learned court below. On the other hand, learned counsel for the State submitted that reliance on the award for acquisition of land for Sectors 4 and 5 is totally misplaced. The location of the land for Sectors 4 and 5 is just on the G.T. Road. The acquired land is situated on the other end of the acquisition boundary for Sectors 4 and 5 and leaving even two acres in between. The acquired land is not connected to any road. It is a chunk of land which is, in fact, land locked acquired for the purpose of setting up of Sewerage Treatment Plant. He further submitted that even the other evidence led by the land owners cannot be considered for the reason that the land forming part therein is either situated in the abadi or having no proximity with the acquired land. Heard learned counsel for the parties and with their assistance perused the relevant referred record. A perusal of the award of the Collector shows that the value of the acquired land was determined at Rs. 2,40,000/- per acre. Though reliance was sought to be placed for the award of the learned court below for acquisition of land for Sectors 4 and 5, but considering the same to be not a relevant piece of evidence, the award of the Collector was upheld. As far as sale deeds produced by the land owners is concerned, a perusal of the impugned award shows that the land forming part of sale deeds (Ex. PB to Ex. PD) is situated within the abadi area where small plots of 100 yards and 200 yards were sold which cannot be considered relevant piece of evidence. Even otherwise, these plots were situated at a considerable distance from the acquired land. The other sale deeds, sought to be relied upon by learned counsel for the appellants, were not pointed on the site plan to show its exact location, vis-a-vis the acquired land. In the absence thereof, the same also could not be considered as a relevant piece of evidence for the purpose of determination of fair value of the land. The only evidence, which is sought to be relied upon by the learned counsel for the appellants, is in the form of judgment of this Court in Brij Mohan's case (supra) pertaining to the acquisition of land for development of Sectors 4 and R.F.A. No.1918 of 1999 [9] 5 at Karnal. A perusal of the aforesaid judgment shows that acquisition therein was carried out vide notification dated 8.2.1989. The Collector determined the market value of the acquired land @ Rs. 2,50,000/- per acre with regard to the plain area. For other area, different value was assessed, which was further enhanced to Rs. 90/- per square yard by the Reference Court and by this Court in Brij Mohan's case (supra), the value of the acquired land pertaining to Sectors 4 and 5 was determined at Rs. 147.68 paise per square yard. As far as the case in hand is concerned, the Collector determined the value of the acquired land at Rs. 2,40,000/- per acre. As far as location of the land is concerned, the same is very well evident from the site plan produced on record which shows that the land forming part of Sectors 4 and 5 of HUDA is located just on GT road and the land under consideration in the present case is situated on the other end of the land acquired for Sectors 4 and 5 and even leaving two acres thereafter. There was no road connecting the acquired land. However, considering the positive and negative factors of the acquired land, as discussed above, in my opinion, it would be appropriate to assess the value thereof at Rs. 100/- per square yard. The appellants shall also be entitled to the statutory benefits available under the Act. The appeals are disposed of in the above terms. (Rajesh Bindal) Judge November 5,2008 mk