RFA No. 1814 of 2011 (1) IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH RFA No. 1814 of 2011 (O&M) Date of decision : 30.3.2011 State of Haryana and others ...Appellants vs Pal Singh and others ...Respondents Coram : Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal Present: Mr. D. D. Gupta, Additional Advocate General, Haryana. Rajesh Bindal, J. This order shall dispose of appeals bearing RFA Nos. 1814 to 1833 of 2011, as common questions of law and facts are involved in these appeals. By filing appeals, State of Haryana is seeking reduction of compensation awarded to the landowners for the acquired land. The bunch of appeals pertain to the valuation of land sought to be acquired for construction of Nalvi Distributory from RD 45100 to 61360-RD 68000 to 80000 and 86660 to 110000 for which notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short 'the Act') was issued by the State of Haryana on 25.5.2007. The land is situated within the revenue estate of village Kaliana, Hadbast No. 228, Tehsil Shahabad, District Kurukshetra. Notification under Section 6 of the Act was issued on 21.11.2007. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short 'the Collector') vide award dated 11.6.2008 assessed the market value of the acquired land @ ` 8,00,000/- per acre. The land owners being dissatisfied with the award of the Collector filed objections which were referred to the learned Court below. On reference under Section 18 of the Act, the learned Court below assessed the compensation of the acquired land @ ` 9,00,000/- per acre. Aggrieved against the award of the learned court below, the State is in appeal before this court. RFA No. 1814 of 2011 (2) Learned counsel for the State submitted that the court below had not given any reasoning whatsoever while determining the amount of compensation payable for the acquired land. It had merely applied a thumb rule. It is due to the policy of the State Government that the value of the land was determined @ ` 8,00,000/- per acre by the Collector, otherwise the value of the land in the area was not as has been awarded by the learned court below. It was submitted that the land owners have not led any evidence to show as to in what manner, they have suffered any loss on account of construction of distributory. Inspite of that the learned court below had awarded ` 1,00,000/-. The prayer was for setting aside of award of the learned court below and restoration that of the Collector. Heard learned counsel State and perused the relevant referred record. A perusal of the evidence led by the State itself shows that the Collector rates in the area in 2006 is ` 9,00,000/- to ` 10,00,000/- per acre. Inspite of that the Collector had awarded the landowners lesser price of their land. As per the policy of the State Government dated 6.4.2007, the minimum rates were fixed @ ` 8,00,000/- per acre in the area in question. This rate was applicable on all those acquisitions where awards have been announced on or after 22.3.2007 irrespective of the date of notification under Section 4 of the Act. The relevant extract of policy, dated 6.4.2007, is as under:- "Sub: Fixation of floor rates for the acquisition of land for public purpose in the State of Haryana. Ref: This Department Memo No. 2025-R-5-2005/4299, dated 28.4.2005. Vide this Department Memo. under reference, minimum floor rates for acquiring land for public purposes for various Departments as well as other State Agencies were fixed by the Haryana Government as follows: i) Minimum floor rate for urbanisable area of Gurgaon. Rs. 15.00 lacs per acre ii) Minimum floor rate for rest of the Haryana Sub- Region of NCR inlcuding Panchkula and area of Chandigarh periphery in the Haryana State. Rs.12.50 lacs per acre. iii) Minimum floor rate for the rest of the Haryana State. Rs. 05.00 lacs per acre. (These floor rates did not include the solatium and interest payable under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894). RFA No. 1814 of 2011 (3) 2. Now it has been observed that with the passage of time market rates of the land have increased substantially. Therefore, Haryana Government has re-considered this matter and has decided to re-fix these floor rates as follows: i) Minimum floor rate for urbanisable area of Gurgaon. Rs. 20.00 lacs per acre ii) Minimum floor rate for rest of the Haryana Sub-Region of NCR inlcuding Panchkula and area of Chandigarh periphery in the Haryana State. Rs.16.00 lacs per acre. iii) Minimum floor rate for the rest of the Haryana State. Rs. 08.00 lacs per acre. 3. These floor rates do not include the solatium and interest payable under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. 4. These revised rates will be applicable on all those acquisitions where awards have been announced on or after 22.3.2007 irrespective of the date of notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894." In the present case, the award was announced by the Collector on 11.6.2008 whereas the policy dated 6.4.2007 comes into force with effect on 22.3.2007. The aforesaid policy shows that from the year 2005 to 2007 the State of Haryana itself had increased the value of the land by 60% in the area in question i.e. from ` 5,00,000/- to ` 8,00,000/- per acre. There is gap of about one year and three months between the date of enforcement of policy dated 6.4.2007 and award of the Collector. There is no force in the argument of learned counsel for the State regarding award of compensation on account of severence. No doubt, due to construction of canal/distributory it has become easier for the landowners to irrigate their field. But on the other hand, due to bifurcation of land it is difficult for them to cultivate on the other portion of land. In my opinion, considering the difficulties which are being faced by the landowners for the acquisition of this type, damages to the tune which were awarded by the learned court below would be just and reasonable. RFA No. 1814 of 2011 (4) Considering the aforesaid factors, in my opinion, no case for interference is made out. Accordingly, the appeals are dismissed. Consequently, the applications for condonation of delay in filing the appeal are also dismissed. However, it is made clear that dismissal of appeals filed by the State will not affect the merits of the appeal of the landowners, in case filed by them. The same shall be considered independently. 30.3.2011 (Rajesh Bindal) vs. Judge