IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH RFA No. 2213 of 1994 Date of Decision:-29.08.2008 Daljit Kaur and Ors. Appellants Versus The Land Acquisition Collector & Ors. Respondent CORAM :- Hon'ble Mr.Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain Present:- Mr. Sukhpal Singh, Advocate, for the Appellants Mr. Manohar Lall, Addl. A.G. Punjab, for Respondent no.1. None for Respondent No.2. --- This judgment shall dispose of RFA Nos. 2202, 2203, 1782, 1928, 1934, 1786, 1794, 1792, 1791, 1790, 1789, 1787, 1785, 1784, 1783, 1935, 1793, 1788 and 2213 of 1994 with X.Obj. No. 126 C-I/95 to 132 C-I/95 and X.Objs. No.78-C-I/94 to 88-C-I/94 as common questions of law and facts are involved therein. Vide notification dated 22nd February 1988 issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short 'the Act') an area measuring 754 kanals, 14 Marlas situated in the Revenue Estates of village Agwar Khawaja Baju, Agwar Lopon Khurd and Agwar Lopon Kalan, Tehsil Jagraon, was acquired by the State of Punjab, at public expense, for a public purpose, namely, for setting up Jagraon Co- operative Sugar Mills Limited. The declaration under Section 6 of the Act was published in the Punjab Government Gazette dated February 24, 1989, whereas the Collector under the Act vide his Award dated 10th July, 1989 compensated the land owners at the following rates:- i) Value of the land - Rs. 1,00,000/- per acre abutting National Highway ii)Land situated away from - Rs. 80,000/- per acre the National Highway at a distance of 2 Killas or more. The land owners felt dis-satisfied with the award filed objections u/s 18 of the Act to the Collector which were referred to the -2- Court of Additional District Judge, Ludhiana wherein the claim statement, it was highlighted by the land owners that the land had great potential value, as it abutted Ludhiana-Ferozepur National Highway, and is situated within the suburban limits of Jagraon. It is alleged that the residential houses, Industrial Units and Godowns were already in existence along with the National Highway upto the acquired land. Shri Guru Teg Bahadur Rice Mills and Grewal Godowns were situated at a distance of about 200 yards from the acquired land. Punjab Rice Mills, F.C.I. Godowns and Malhotra Commercial complex situated in the vicinity of the acquired land. Grain Market, Jagroan, and Warehouses were situated at a distance of about one kilometers from the acquired land which was reserved by the land owners for the construction of a residential colony and the land was being utilized temporarily for agricultural purposes. Thus, the market value of the acquired land was alleged to be not less than Rs. 3 lacs per acre. In reply, the respondent state, inter-alia, alleged that the reference is barred by time. The land was agricultural in nature and had no potential value for residential purposes and is situated at a distance of 3 kilometers from the Municipal Limits of Jagraon and the Collector has awarded a fair compensation as per prevailing market rates. Both the parties led oral as well as documentary evidence. The land owners examined Haqiqat Rai AW1, Gurcharan Singh AW2, Gurcharan Dass AW3, Kalyan Singh AW4, Jaswinder Singh AW5 and Mohinder Singh AW6, besides sale deeds Exs.A.16 to A.25 and A.27 as well as a copy of the award of Shri M.S.Samee, Additional District Judge, Ludhiana dated 10.11.1989. Haqiqat Rai, AW1 was produced to prove site plan Ex. A.1 in which acquired land is shown in red colour, the sale instances have -3- been depicted in green colour, the buildings as well as other important places are shown in yellow colour, the roads in black colour. Witnesses Gurcharan Singh AW2 and Jaswinder Singh AW5 stated that Jagraon Town is a developing town and is fast expanding along the National Highway towards the acquired land. Gurcharan Dass AW3 proved the photographs of the farm house of Mohinder Singh etc. whereas Kalyan Singh AW4, who is a retired Executive Engineer from the Irrigation Branch of the P.W.D has filed report Ex.AW4/A of the farm house of Mohinder Singh. Mohinder Singh AW 6 entered the witness box as AW6. In rebuttal, respondents had examined Hari Singh RW1, Jugraj Singh RW2, Darshan Singh RW3 and produced certified copies of the mutations Ex.R4 to R.7. Hari Singh RW1 has merely proved list Ex.R.1 in respect of the persons who have been provided employment in the Jagraon Cooperative Sugar Mills Ltd., Jugran Singh RW2 proved Ex.R2, copy of the Aks Shajra showing the acquired land in it in black shade and the area covered under the sale transactions in green colour. According to him, the acquired land is situated at a distance of about 5 kilometers from the Bus Stand and three kilometers from the Octroi Post, Jagraon, along the Jagraon-Moga mettled road. Darshan Singh RW3 stated that Jagraon Town is developing towards Ludhiana and not towards Moga. The details of the sale transactions which have been relied upon by the land owners are tabulated as under:- Sr. Exhibit No. Date of Area Sold Consideration Rate per acre No. Sale K M 1. Ex.A.16 25.3.87 0-16-2/3 Rs.40,000-00 Rs.3,64,000.00 2. Ex.A.17 11.3.86 0-13-3 Rs.48,000-00 Rs.5,76,000.00 3. Ex.A.18 27.8.87 0-4-3 ½ Rs.48,000-00 Rs.17,37,215.00 4. Ex.A.19 27.11.87 0-12 ½-0 Rs.40,500-00 Rs.5,18,400-00 5. Ex.A.20 10.2.88 0-15-1/3-0 Rs.30,000-00 Rs.3,60,000-00 6. Ex.21 A 18.11.85 0-10-0 Rs.19,500-00 Rs.3,12,000-00 -4- 7. Ex.A.22 15.4.88 0-2-0 Rs.35,000-00 Rs.28,00,000-00 8. Ex.A.23 16.4.90 1-4-0 Rs.74,000-00 Rs.4,93,333.00 9. Ex.A.24 20.8.90 0-4 ½ -0 Rs.16,000-00 Rs.5,68,888.00 10. Ex.A.25 3.7.87 0-0-5 Rs.7,000-00 Rs.20,16,000.00 11. Ex.A.27 12.6.87 1-0-0 Rs.2,500-00 Rs.2,00,000.00 Whereas the details of the mutation relied upon by the respondents-State are tabulated as under:- Sr. Mutation Date of sale Area Sold Consideration Market No. No. value per acre K M 1. 4917 1.1.88 10-17 40,000/- 29,440/- 2. 4920 27.1.88 0-5 1,000/- 32,000/- 3. 4924 25.3.88 3-14 14,000/- 31,360/- 4. 4926 25.3.88 3-9 14,000/- 32,480/- The reference court had discussed the entire evidence produced by both the parties. So far as sale transactions Exs.A16,Ex.A17,Ex.A18,Ex.A19,Ex.A20,Ex.A21,Ex.A22 and Ex.A25 which have been relied upon by the land owners are concerned, they relate to small pieces of land and are situated in the heart of Jagraon Town, therefore, these sale instances were not found to be comparable with the acquired land, which is situated at a considerable distance from residential and commercial area of Jagraon Town. The sale transactions Ex. A 23 dated 16.4.90 and Ex. A.24 dated 20.8.90 respectively were not accepted as comparable instances. The sale transaction Ex. A 17 was found to be of an area, which was near the village abadi and new green market, Jagraon and was of a small piece of land measuring about 13 marlas and included in it the right of turn of water from the installed Bore as well as passages and khal etc. therefore it could not be transpired as what was the price of the land as per Ex.A26. So far as next argument is concerned, no material was shown relating to the acquired land. The award of the Court dated 10th -5- November 1989 was also found to be irrelevant because that was delivered in relation to the acquisition of land in village Raikot for the construction of Raikot Bye Pass which has no relevance to the acquired land. The only sale transaction found to be relevant was Ex.A27 dated 12.06.1987 which is not only near in point of time to the notification under section 4 of the Act, but also relates to the land situated near the acquired land on the other side of the road. The sale transaction shows that an area measuring one kanal had been sold for Rs. 25,000/- which comes to Rs.Two lacs per acre. On the other hand the evidence of the respondents-State were mutation which were rightly ruled out from consideration, because those were not even taken into account even by the Land Acquisition Collector who had assessed the compensation of the acquired land on the basis of rates furnished by the Commissioner Patiala Division, Patiala. The Reference Court on the basis of the sale transaction Ex.A27 in which the total value worked out to be Rs.2 lacs per acre has awarded a compensation of Rs. 1,20,000/- per acre after applying a cut of 40 percent. Counsel for the appellant has vehemently argued that the reference Court has committed a palpable error in applying a deduction to the extent of 40 per cent and has prayed that the extent of deduction should be reduced to 20 percent. On the other hand Shri Manohar Lall, Addl. A.G., Punjab has argued that there is no error in the assessment of compensation by the Reference Court because of the reason that the land is required for the construction of Jagaraon Cooperative Sugar Mill for which all of the amenities were to be provided to the land in question which is agricultural and more over the sale instance is of small portion of land, therefore, the deduction of 40 percent is well within the settled laws. After hearing both the counsel for the parties, I am of the -6- view that the procedure adopted by the Reference Court for the assessment of compensation for the land abutting the National Highway at the rate of Rs. 1,20,000/- per acre and Rs.1,00,000/- per acre for the rest of the land beyond two acres or more is, in no way, inadequate. The compensation assessed is just and proper because the sale instance that has been taken into consideration i.e. Ex.A27 pertains to only one kanal of land wherein a big chunk of land measuring 754 kanals 14 marlas has been acquired that too, for the purpose of construction of Jagraon Cooperative Sugar Mills, for which all the civic amenities were to be provided. Therefore, I do not find any illegality or infirmity in the award of the Reference Court nor counsel for the appellants could show from the record that any evidence has been misread which has caused miscarriage of justice. No other point has been urged before this Court by the Counsel for the appellant. In view of the above, the present appeals are found to be devoid of any merit and are hereby dismissed. No costs. (Rakesh Kumar Jain) Judge 29.08.2008 parvinder