RFA No.1849 of 1992 1 In the Punjab and Haryana High Court,at Chandigarh. RFA No. 1849 of 1992 Decided on Nov.11,2008. Bagrawat and others -Appellants vs. State of Haryana and others --Respondents. Present: Sarvshri Mani Ram,G.S.Virk,Advocates and Atul Lakhanpal, SeniorAdvocate with Mr.R.S.Chahal,Advocate, for the appellants in the appeals filed by landowners/claimants and for the respondents in the appeals filed by the State of Haryana. Mr.H.S.Hooda,AG,Haryana,assisted by Mr.Rajiv Kawatra, Sr.DAG,Haryana for the respondents in the appeals filed by the landowners/claimants and for the appellants in the appeals filed by the State of Haryana. Rakesh Kumar Jain,J: (Oral) This judgment shall dispose of 25 appeals filed by the landowners/claimants as well as by the State of Haryana bearing RFA Nos. 1849, 1850, 2063, 2383, 2345,2384, 2610, 2611, 3580 to 3592 of 1992,921,923,3656 and 3657 of 1993 as common question of law and facts are involved therein. This case relates to acquisition of land measuring 1238 kanals RFA No.1849 of 1992 2 12 marlas situated in two villages,Bhuna and Dulat which is tabulated according to its kind and area, as under: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kind of land Village Area Nehri Dulat 142K.0 M Tal -do- 51K-16 M Gair Mumkin -do- - - Kind of land Village Area Nehri Bhuna 134K.16M Tal -do- 902K 6 Gair Mumkin -do- 7K-14M ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The aforesaid land was proposed to be acquired vide notification dated 31.1.1989 issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act,1894 (for short,'the Act') for the purpose of setting up Bhuna Co-operative Sugar Mills Ltd, Bhuna at village Bhuna, Tehsil Fatehabad, District Hisar. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short, the Collector) vide his award No.1 dated 1.3.1989 assessed the market value of the acquired land in two categories Kind of land Value Nehri Rs.35,000/-per acre Tal: Rs.20,000/-per acre No separate rate was fixed for Gair Mumkin land which perhaps was included in the Tal land. Unsatisfied with the award of the Collector, the landowners filed objections under Section 18 of the Act in which it was, inter-alia, alleged that Collector has ignored the immense residential, commercial and industrial potentiality of the acquired land which lies adjacent to G.T.Road. It was also alleged that a cotton ginning factory, cinema hall, bus stand, main market and Water Works were near the acquired land. The claim petitions were contested by the State of Haryana in RFA No.1849 of 1992 3 which it was alleged that the value of the acquired land has been rightly fixed by the Collector after taking into consideration prevailing market rate. In their evidence, the landowners relied upon sale deed Ex.P-1 dated 12.12.1988 whereby 3 kanals 16 marlas of land was sold for Rs.35,000/-, which comes to Rs. 73683.20 per acre. Sale deed Ex.P-2, whereby 2 kanals 6 marlas of land was sold for Rs. 43,000/- on 12.12.1988 which comes to Rs. 1,49,564.80 per acre. Sale deeds Ex.P-3 dated 13.6.1989, Ex P-4 dated 09.5.1989 and Ex.P-5 dated 30.5.1989 were also relied upon. On the contrary, the State of Haryana relied upon various sale deeds out of which sale deed Ex R-5 dated 31.5.1988 pertains to 11 marlas of land which was sold for Rs. 2000/- which comes to Rs. 29,120/- per acre. Sale deed Ex. R-4 is dated 05.7.1988 vide which 3 acres, 5 kanals 12 marlas of land was sold for Rs.94,000/- which comes to Rs.25,200/- per acre. Sale deed Ex.R-3 is also dated 5.7.1988 vide which 1 kanal 7 marlas of land was sold for Rs.20,265/- per acre. All these sale deeds were in respect of Nehri land. The learned Reference Court found only sale deeds Ex.P1 and P-2 relevant for the purpose of determining the market value of the acquired land as they pertain to same village Dulat land of which has been acquired in the present acquisition and were also of the date preceding the date of notification issued under Section 4 of the Act. The learned Reference Court after taking the average prices of the two sale deeds applied a cut of 1/3rd and assessed Rs. 43,500/- per acre for Nehri land and Rs.25,000/- per acre for Tal land besides awarding all the statutory benefits RFA No.1849 of 1992 4 in terms of the provisions of the amended Act. Learned counsel for the claimants has vehemently contended that Collector has committed a palpable error in not appreciating the immense potentiality of the acquired land at the time of determining the market value and had also erred in calculating the price of the two sale deeds Ex.P1 and P-2 @ Rs.35,000/-and Rs.43,000/ which comes to Rs. 73,683.20 and Rs.1,49,564.80 respectively. As against this, Mr.H.S.Hooda, learned Advocate General, Haryana has contended that the learned Reference Court has erred in not taking into consideration the sale deeds relied upon by the State and the cut that has been applied is on the lower side in view of the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Basavva (Smt) and others vs. Spl. Land Acquisition Officer and others (1996) 9 Supreme Court Cases 640, in which a deduction of 65% was allowed. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and have perused the record with their assistance. Insofar as the first argument of learned counsel for the claimants is concerned that Collector as well as the learned Reference Court has committed a palpable error in not appreciating the potentiality of the acquired land, I do not find any evidence available on record led by the claimants from which it can be transpired that the acquired land has got potentiality for the purpose for raising construction of residential, commercial or industrial areas. However, so far as the calculation of the sale deeds Ex.P-1 and P-2 are concerned, that definitely have been mis- calculated by the Courts below because sale deed Ex.P-2 does not pertain to 6 kanals 6 marlas, rather it pertains to 2 kanals 6 marlas, which has been RFA No.1849 of 1992 5 sold for a value of Rs 20,000/- instead of Rs.43,000/- and the total value per acre comes to Rs. 69,565.21 per acre on sale price of Rs.20,000/- of 2 kanals 6 marlas. Therefore, average of both the sale deeds Ex.P-1 and Ex P 2 i.e. Rs.73,680.20+ Rs.69,565.2 comes to Rs.1,43,248.42 which on divided by 2 comes to Rs.71,624.21. So far as the argument of the learned State Counsel is concerned, some of the sale deeds i.e. Exs. R-3 to R-5 have rightly been ignored by the learned Reference Court as the value arising out of them is less than the value determined by the Land Acqsuisition Collector which cannot be taken into consideration in view of Section 25 of the Act. As regards the cut of 65% is concerned, the law laid down in Basavva' case (Supra) is distinguishable on its own facts because in that case, sale deed was of small plot situated at a distance of 1 k.m. On the other hand, in the case of Lucknow Development Authority v. Krishna Gopal Lahoti and others (2008) 1 Supreme Court Cases 554, the Supreme Court has laid down that a cut of 1/3rd is normally applied when the land which has been acquired is agricultural in nature. It was also contended by the learned counsel for the claimants that the learned Reference Court should have awarded uniform rate for Nehri and Tal land but no evidence has been led in this case as to whether the value of Nehri and Tal land was equal at the time of acquisition, therefore, this argument is also rejected. No other point has been raised before me by the learned counsel for the parties. In view of my above discussion, the appeals filed by the landowners/claimants are allowed to the extent that calculation of sale RFA No.1849 of 1992 6 deeds Exs.P-1 and P-2 are corrected and compensation has been re- determined as Rs.71,624.21 (as average) and the appeals filed by the State of Haryana are dismissed without any order as to costs. Nov 11,2008 (Rakesh Kumar Jain) RR Judge