R. F. A. No. 2904 of 1998 -1- In the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh Date of decision : 20.7.2010 1. RFA No. 2904 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Nasiru Deen and another ..... Respondents 2. RFA No. 2905 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Rashid Ali Mohd. ..... Respondent 3. RFA No. 2906 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Bashir Ahmad and others ..... Respondents 4. RFA No. 2907 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Smt. Santosh Kumari ..... Respondent 5. RFA No. 2908 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Jaam Deen and others ..... Respondents 6. RFA No. 2909 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Wali Deen ..... Respondent 7. RFA No. 2910 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Gulam Din ..... Respondent 8. RFA No. 2911 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Razak and another ..... Respondents R. F. A. No. 2904 of 1998 -2- 9. RFA No. 2912 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Surjit Singh and others ..... Respondents 10. RFA No. 2913 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Gurbaz Singh and another ..... Respondents 11. RFA No. 2914 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Rasali Devi ..... Respondent 12. RFA No. 3526 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Jangsher and another ..... Respondents 13. RFA No. 4098 of 1998 (O&M) State of Haryana and another ..... Appellants vs Salamudin and another ..... Respondents Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal Present: Mr. Ashish Gupta, Assistant Advocate General, Haryana. None for the respondents. Rajesh Bindal J. This order shall dispose of the aforesaid appeals, as the same arise out of common acquisition. The State has filed the aforesaid appeals before this court against the award of the learned court below passed under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, 'the Act') seeking reduction of compensation for the acquired land. The facts have been extracted from RFA No. 2904 of 1998. Briefly, the facts are that land measuring 4.55 acres situated in Village Fazalpur, Tehsil Naraingarh, District Ambla was acquired by the State of R. F. A. No. 2904 of 1998 -3- Haryana, vide notification dated 4.2.1987 issued under Section 4 of the Act for construction of link road between Sadhaura and Rattuwala. After completing all the formalities, the Land Acquisition Collector (for short, “the Collector”) announced the award on 17.9.1987 assessing the market value of the acquired land @ ` 29,040/- per acre for chahi, ` 19,360 per acre for barani and ` 9,680/- per acre for banjar and ` 4,840/- per acre for gair mumkin kind of land. Dissatisfied with the award of the Collector, the landowners filed objections which were referred to the learned Court below for consideration, who on the basis of evidence available on record, determined the market value of the land at a uniform rate of ` 45,160/- per acre. It is this award which is impugned in the present set of appeals. Learned counsel for the appellants submitted that the evidence led by the State in the form of sale-deeds, Ex. R-1 and Ex. R-2, was wrongly ignored by the learned court below. The court has wrongly relied upon sale-deed dated 14.5.1985, Ex. P-2, vide which only a small portion of land measuring 3 kanals 5 marlas was sold for a sale consideration of ` 24,000/- i.e. ` 56,470/- per acre. The 1/3rd cut applied by the learned court below by granting increase @ 12% is not justified and the same should have been 50% as the land acquired is 4.55 acres and the sale-deed relied upon by it just a small piece of land. It was also submitted that the court below should not have given go by to the categorisation of land as chahi kind of land could not be said to be equivalent to the banjar kind of land. It was prayed that the award of the court below be set aside and that of the Collector be upheld. No one has appeared for the respondent. Heard learned counsel for the appellant and perused the relevant referred record. It is admitted case of the appellant that the link road between Sadhaura and Rattuwala, was laid in the year 1971 and obviously the land was also utilized in the same year itself. The notification under Section 4 of the Act was published on 4.2.1987. It is also not disputed by the learned counsel for the appellant that no amount of compensation was paid to the owners in the year 1971. When the road itself had been constructed on the land in question in the year 1971 there was no question of its being categorised as chahi, barani or gair mumkin in the year 1987. In so far as sale-deeds, Ex. R-1 and Ex. R-2, are concerned, the learned court below has rightly discarded the same as the price paid in those sale- deeds was below the value assessed by the Collector. R. F. A. No. 2904 of 1998 -4- As far as application of 1/3rd cut is concerned, the sale transaction, Ex. P-2, is not so small piece of land as is sought to be suggested by the learned State counsel. It is measuring 3 kanals 5 marlas of land and the land acquired is merely 4.55 acres and therefore, 1/3rd cut cannot be said to be on lower side. For the reasons mentioned above, I do not find any reason to interfere with the impugned award. The appeals are accordingly, dismissed. 20.7.2010 ( Rajesh Bindal) vs. Judge