RFA No.944 of 1993 -1 - IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH RFA No.944 of 1991 Date of Decision: 7.5.2009 Khushal Singh and others ..Appellants. Vs. The State of Punjab through the Land Acquisition Collector, SYL Canal Project, Patiala. ...Respondent. CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR JAIN Present: Mr.Jaswant Jain, Advocate for the appellants. Mr.N.S.Pawar, Addl.AG Punjab for the respondent. RAKESH KUMAR JAIN, J.(ORAL) This common judgment shall dispose of 8 Regular First Appeals out of which four appeals bearing Nos.944 to 947 of 1993 have been filed by the claimants for the purpose of enhancement of compensation and four appeals have been filed by State of Punjab bearing Nos.3318, 3319, 3419 and 3420 of 1993 for the purpose of reducing the compensation awarded by the Reference Court in which identical questions of law and facts are involved. Therefore, all the appeals are being disposed of by a common judgment. However, for the sake of convenience, the facts are being extracted from RFA No.944 of 1993. In brief, the facts of the case are that vide notification issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short `the Act') dated 20.8.1985, land of village Khera Gajju, Tehsil Rajpura, District RFA No.944 of 1993 -2 - Patiala was acquired for the public purpose, namely for the construction of Satluj Yamuna Link Canal (Punjab Portion). Vide his award dated 25.5.1986, Land Acquisition Collector (for short `the Collector') determined the market value of the acquired land at the following rates: (i)Chahi land Rs.62,000/- per acre (ii)Gair Mumkin land Rs.35,000/- per acre The land owners were not satisfied with the award of the Collector, therefore, they filed Objections under Section 18 of the Act, which were carried to the Civil Court whereafter considering the evidence available on record, the Additional District Judge, Patiala vide his order dated 1.12.1992 assessed the market value of the acquired land @ Rs.1 lac per acre. Sh.Jaswant Jain, learned counsel for the appellants has vehemently contended that compensation awarded by the learned Court below is highly inadequate and deserves to be enhanced. On the conrary, Sh.N.S.Pawar, Addl.AG Punjab for the respondents has referred to a decision of this Court in RFA No.1084 of 1990 titled as Raksha Rani Vs. State of Punjab through Collector, Patiala and another decided by Hon'ble Mr.Justice G.S.Singhvi in which compensation for the land arising out of the same notification and award has been assessed @ Rs.1 lac per acre. He also referred to para 4 of the impugned award of Additional District Judge, Patiala dated 1.12.1992 in which learned Additional District Judge, Patiala has referred to the case of Raksha Rani wife of Shakti Parkash and observed as under: “Raksha Rani wife of Shakti Parkash, resident of village Khera Gajju, Tehsil Rajpura, District Patiala filed another land RFA No.944 of 1993 -3 - reference in which the same points have been taken by her in this land reference as taken by Khushal Singh etc. petitioners, mentioned above.” Since the compensation which has been awarded in the case of Raksha Rani has been settled by this Court to the tune of Rs.1 lac per acre which has been awarded by the learned Reference Court vide his impugned award dated 1.12.1992, I do not find any evidence worthwhile to consider for the purpose of either enhancement of compensation in the appeals filed by the claimants or for reducing the same in the appeals filed by the State of Punjab. Thus, all the appeals filed by the claimants as well as State of Punjab, are found to be without any merit and are dismissed without any order as to costs. (Rakesh Kumar Jain) 15.5.2009 Judge Meenu