CWP No.7570 of 2010 1 IN THE HIGH COURTOF PUNJAB AND HARYANA, CHANDIGARH. CWP No.7570 of 2010 Date of decision: 10.1.2011 Punjab Wakf Board ...Petitioner vs The Amritsar Improvement Trust and others. ....Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE JASBIR SINGH HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR GARG. --- Present: Mr. Parminder Singh, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr.Gaurav Jindal, Advocate, for the respondent No.1 -- Jasbir Singh,J.(Oral) This judgment shall dispose of Civil Writ Petitions No.7567,7568,7569,7570,7571, 13149 and 13150 of 2010. To dictate order, the facts are being taken from CWP No. 7570 of 2010. This writ petition has been filed to impugn an order dated 11.8.2008 passed by the President Land Acquisition Tribunal, Amritsar, Improvement Trust, Amritsar( in short the Tribunal) upholding an award passed by the Land Acquisition Collector on 3.8.1978. Vide the impugned order prayer of the petitioner to enhance compensation for the land acquired by the Improvement Trust was rejected. It is apparent from the record that by issuing the notifications under sections 36 and 42 of Punjab Town Improvement Act, 1922, respondent No.2 the Improvement Trust acquired a vast track of land, compensation for which was claimed by the landowners. Award was passed CWP No.7570 of 2010 2 by the Collector on 3.8.1978 awarding compensation @ of Rs.258/- per marla. Claiming that compensation as inadequate, petitioner filed an application for making reference under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act,1894 ( in short the Act) for enhancement of compensation and also claiming ownership right in a portion of the property under acquisition. Matter was referred to the Tribunal for adjudication. It is clear from the record that though a question of title was raised in the application moved under section 18 of the Act, yet no issue was claimed by the petitioner in that regard when issues were framed by the Tribunal. It is also apparent from the record that regarding ownership no evidence was led by the petitioner. In the meantime, when the matter was pending before the Tribunal, the Civil Court passed a judgment and decree in favour of the Punjab Wakf Board on 11.3.2008 whereby the petitioner was held to be the owner of the property in dispute and it was further observed that the defendants, namely, the improvement trust, Amritsar and Municipal Corporation Amritsar have no interest in the said property. Award was passed on 11.8.2008. Despite opportunity available, no attempt was made to produce on record of the Tribunal, the judgment and decree passed in favour of the petitioner. Under the circumstances, once no issue is framed and no evidence has been led, we are of the opinion that no finding can be given by this court in favour of the petitioner qua ownership of the land in dispute. Be that as it may, if the petitioner has a valid judgment and decree in its favour, it may claim its right against the respondents, in accordance with that judgment and decree passed by the civil Court. CWP No.7570 of 2010 3 Regarding enhancement of compensation, we feel that the award was just and proper, no evidence has been pointed out which may have been ignored by the Tribunal when refusing to enhance the amount of compensation. The Tribunal has discussed the entire evidence in a proper manner and has given elaborate reasons to discard the evidence upon which reliance has been placed by the petitioner and other right-holders to grant them higher amount of compensation. It was noted, as a matter of fact, that most of the instances of sale brought on record were of the date after issuance of notification under section 36 of the Act on 24.5.1974 In CWP No.13150 of 2010 besides the reasons mentioned above, in the award passed by the Tribunal it has been specifically recorded by the Tribunal that no sale instance has been produced by the petitioner on record to show that the price of the land, adjacent to the acquired land was more than the compensation awarded by the Land Acquisition Collector. As the petitioners failed to lead any evidence in support of their claim for enhancement of compensation, the award passed by the Tribunal cannot be modified. All the writ petitions are disposed of . ( Jasbir Singh ) Judge. ( Rakesh Kumar Garg) Judge January 10, 2011 rk