1 RFA No. 361 of 2008 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH --- Regular First Appeal No.361 of 2008 (O&M) Date of decision: 28.8.2009 Gram Panchayat Bichpari, Taraf Insar … Appellant Versus State of Haryana and another … Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE AJAY KUMAR MITTAL -- PRESENT: Mr. Ashwani Talwar, Advocate for the appellant. Mr. K.C. Gupta, Assistant Advocate General, Haryana for respondents. --- AJAY KUMAR MITTAL, J. Certain land falling within the revenue estate of village Patti Taraf Insar, Hadbast No.123, Tehsil and District Panipat, including the land owned and possessed by the appellant-Gram Panchayat was acquired by the Haryana Government by issuing notifications dated 2.3.1993 and 1.3.1994, under Sections 4 and 6, respectively, of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short “the Act”) for a public purpose, namely, the development and utilisation thereof as residential, commercial, industrial and institutional area for Sector 18, Panipat. The Land Acquisition Collector vide award dated 28.2.1996 assessed the market value of the acquired land at the rates ranging from Rs. 3,00,000/- to Rs. 4,50,000/- per acre depending upon the kind of the acquired land besides awarding compulsory acquisition charges at the 2 RFA No. 361 of 2008 rate of 30% and additional amount at the rate of 12% per annum. The Reference Court, after analyzing the evidence produced by the parties, determined the market value of the acquired land at a flat rate of Rs. 185.60 per square yard, vide award dated 9.5.2007. The Reference Court also granted solatium at the rate of 30% and an additional amount at the rate of 12% per annum, besides interest on the amount of enhanced compensation at the rate of 9% per annum from the date of taking of possession of the land till the dates of filing of the references under Section 18 of the Act, and at the rate of 15% per annum from the respective dates of filing of the references till payment. Still dissatisfied, the Gram Panchayat has preferred this appeal with a plea that the amount of compensation awarded by the Reference Court is inadequate because neither the Land Acquisition Collector nor the Reference Court have properly appreciated the potentiality of the land. During pendency of this appeal, the appellant moved Civil Miscellaneous Application No. 8459/C.I of 2009 praying that this appeal may be disposed of in terms of the judgment dated 5.8.2008 rendered in a bunch of Review Applications, one of those being R.A. No.84 of 2007 in Regular First Appeal No. 2600 of 2001 (Bahadur Chand Versus State of Haryana and another). I have heard learned counsel appearing for the parties and have gone through the record. Learned counsel appearing for the appellant submitted that on an earlier occasion, in Regular First Appeal No. 2600 of 2001 which had also arisen out of the same notification, this Court had not countenanced 3 RFA No. 361 of 2008 the plea of the land-owners for enhancement of the market value of the acquired land and, thus, had upheld the one determined by the Reference Court i.e. at the rate of Rs. 185.60 per square yard. Learned counsel further submitted that later on it was found that the judgment rendered in RFA No. 2600 of 2001, on 29.11.2006 suffered from an error of calculation and on a plea raised on behalf of the land-owners, it became the subject matter of review by a Division Bench of this Court which rectified the error, which in order to depict the picture in a more clearer terms deserves to be noticed here in verbatim: “In our considered view, we find that there is error apparent on the face of the record which deserves to be rectified. The computation of enhancement has been wrongly fixed at Rs. 125/- per square yard in Nand Lal’s case (supra) which has accordingly been rectified to Rs. 139/- on review. Taking the base price after review at Rs. 139/- the computation of enhancement works out to be Rs. 206/- per square yard. Accordingly, we allow the review petitions and the market value of the acquired land assessed in judgment dated 29.11.2006 shall henceforth be read as Rs. 206/- per square yard.” Learned counsel appearing for the State concurred with the submission of the learned counsel appearing for the appellant and confirmed that the controversy raised in this appeal is fully covered by the judgment of this Court dated 5.8.2008 rendered in Review Applications, the one of those being R.A. No.84 of 2007 while reviewing the judgment 4 RFA No. 361 of 2008 in Regular First Appeal No. 2600 of 2001 (Bahadur Chand Versus State of Haryana and another). In view of the above, this appeal is accordingly disposed of in terms of the order passed in Review Application No. 84 of 2007 which resultantly would mean that the appellant herein will also be entitled to the market value of the acquired land at the rate of Rs. 206/- per square yard besides other statutory benefits in terms of judgment of this Court in RFA No. 2600 of 2001 rendered on 29.11.2006. (AJAY KUMAR MITTAL) August 28, 2009 JUDGE *RKMALIK*