IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.15076 of 1997 DATE OF DECISION :31st May, 2011 Smt. Amarjit Kaur and others ...Petitioners Versus The Tribunal Improvement Trust Ambala City and others. ...Respondents Civil Writ Petition No.9304 of 1998 The Improvement Trust Ambala(Dissolved) through its Administrator. …Petitioner Versus The Improvement Trust Tribunal, Ambala City through its President. …Respondent CORAM: HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE JASBIR SINGH HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR GARG Present : None for the petitioner(s) Mr.Mahavir Sandhu, Advocate for the Improvement Trust. 1.Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? Yes/No 2.To be referred to the Reporter or not? Yes/No 3.Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Yes/No Jasbir Singh, J.(Oral) This order will dispose of two writ petitions, i.e. CWP Nos. 15076 of 1997 and 9304 of 1998. To dictate order, facts are being taken from CWP No.15076 of 1997. Civil Writ Petition No. 15076 of 1997 and Civil Writ Petition No. 9304 of 1998 Civil Writ Petition No.15076 of 1997 and 2 Civil Writ Petition No.9304 of 1998 This writ petition has been filed with a prayer to quash an award dated 11.02.1987(P1). It is apparent from the record that vide the impugned award, compensation was assessed for the land of the petitioner, which was acquired by issuing a notification under Section 36 of the Punjab Town Improvement Act, 1922 (in short, 1922 Act) on 22.10.1974, followed by another notification under Section 42 of the 1922 Act on 20.04.1976. Vide an award dated 18.04.1976, while assessing the market value of land, the Land Acquisition Collector divided the land into three blocks and assessed the market value @ ` 16,500/- per acre (` 3.41 per square yard) for Block ‘A’, @ ` 16,000/- per acre(` 3.31 per square yard) for Block ‘B’, @ ` 15,500/- per acre (` 3.20 per square yard) for Block ‘C’. The land owners were not satisfied with the amount of compensation. They filed applications under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (in short, 1894 Act), before the President, Improvement Trust, Ambala City and vide the impugned award dated 11.2.1987, the belting system was upheld by the competent Court, however, the amount of compensation was enhanced to ` 15/- per square yard for Block ‘A’ ` 12/- per square yard for Block ‘B’ and ` 10/- per square yard for Block ‘C’. The land owners were also held entitled to claim other statutory benefits as per law. Many land owners came to this Court by filing several writ petitions. The improvement Trust also came to this Court with a prayer that the amount of compensation be reduced. The matter was taken up by this Court in CWP No.2815 of 1987 and vide order dated 19.12.2008, amount of compensation was further enhanced. Relevant portion of the order reads thus:- 2 Civil Writ Petition No. 15076 of 1997 and Civil Writ Petition No. 9304 of 1998 Civil Writ Petition No.15076 of 1997 and 3 Civil Writ Petition No.9304 of 1998 “For the reasons afore-stated, these writ petitions are allowed in part, while the landowners whose lands fall in Block “A” are held entitled to compensation @ ` 38/- per square yard, those whose land falls in Block “B” are held entitled to compensation @ ` 34/-, whereas those landowners whose lands fall in block “C” are held entitled to compensation @ ` 28.050 per square yard. The petitioners shall also be entitled to solatium @ 15% per annum till actual payment thereof. Parties are, however, left to bear their own costs.” The improvement Trust went in appeal, which was dismissed by passing an order in LPA No.1448 of 2009 on 23.2.2011. At the time of arguments, counsel for the respondent Improvement Trust failed to distinguish the judgments, referred to above. Counsel for the petitioner also failed to show as to how the petitioner is entitled to get compensation, more than the amount awarded by the learned Single Judge vide order dated 19.12.2008. In view of above, Civil Writ Petition No.15076 of 1997 is allowed, award dated 11.02.1987 is modified and compensation is enhanced to the extent as granted by the learned Single Judge in CWP No.2815 of 1987 vide order dated 19.12.2008. In view of the order passed in this Writ petition, the Writ Petition No.9304 of 1998 titled as The Improvement Trust Ambala vs. the Improvement Trust Tribunal, stands dismissed. [JASBIR SINGH] JUDGE [RAKESH KUMAR GARG] JUDGE 31ST May, 2011 Shivani Kaushik 3