R.F.A. No. 2782 of 1989 [1] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH (1) Regular First Appeal No. 2782 of 1989 Date of decision: September 08, 2008 State of Haryana and another .. Appellants v. Smt.Sarti and others .. Respondents (2) Regular First Appeal No. 293 of 1990 State of Haryana and another .. Appellants v. Jage Ram .. Respondent (3) Regular First Appeal No. 398 of 1990 State of Haryana and another .. Appellants v. Suraj Bhan .. Respondent CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BINDAL Present: Mr. Rajiv Kawatra, Senior Deputy Advocate General, Haryana for the appellants. None for the respondents. Rajesh Bindal J. This order will dispose of R.F.A. Nos. 2782 of 1989 and 293 and 398 of 1990, as the same arise out of a common award of the learned Court below. However, the facts have been extracted from R.F.A. No. 2782 of 1989. The State is in appeal against the award of the learned Court below whereby the compensation on account of acquisition of land has been assessed at Rs. 20,320/- per acre. The prayer is for reduction in the amount of compensation awarded to the landowners. It has not been pointed out as to whether any other appeal was filed by the respondents/landowners. Briefly, the facts are that the land measuring 1.6 acres belonging to the landowners was acquired for the purpose of construction of Subana Ring Bandh vide notification dated 16.4.1979 issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, `the Act'). The award was passed by the Land R.F.A. No. 2782 of 1989 [2] Acquisition Collector (for short, `the Collector') on 24.9.1986 assessing the value of chahi land at Rs. 12,000/- per acre and for gair mumkin land at Rs. 4,000/- per acre. Aggrieved against the award of the Collector, the landowners filed objections which were referred to the Court below for determination. Considering the evidence led by the parties on record, the learned Court below assessed the compensation of the value of the land at Rs. 20,320/- per acre. A perusal of the award shows that the learned Court below assessed the compensation on the basis of sale deeds produced on record by the landowners. The primary reliance was placed upon sale deed (Ex. P.9) dated 14.1.1976, whereby a plot measuring 3 kanals 11 marlas was sold for Rs. 9,000/-. The transaction of sale in this case was entered into well before the date of acquisition. Considering the evidence as most suitable, keeping in view the location thereof, the compensation was assessed at Rs. 20,320/- per acre. Learned counsel for the appellant submitted that a single transaction should not have been considered for the purpose of determination of the value of the land. However, I do not find any merit in the submission of the learned counsel. A perusal of the impugned award shows that acquisition in the present case was for 1.6 acres of land. The sale transaction relied upon by the Court below is for an area measuring 3 kanals 11 marlas and the transaction had also taken place nearly three years prior to the date of acquisition. Further, the sale instances produced by the State were of agricultural land located far away from the acquired land, as is evident from the site plan (Ex. R.1) and those were also not considered for the reason that the amount mentioned therein was less than the award of the Collector. Still further, another reason for not interfering with the award is that the acquisition was merely for 1.6 acres of land which had taken place nearly 30 years back. For the reasons mentioned above, I do not find any merit in the present appeals. Accordingly, the same are dismissed. (Rajesh Bindal) Judge 8.9.2008 mk