R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990 [1]
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
AT CHANDIGARH
Date of decision: November 17 , 2008
(1) RFA No. 1372 of 1990
Gram Panchayat, Village Gudha
....Appellant
Versus
Union of India and others
...Respondents
(2) RFA No. 1373 of 1990
Hukam Chand (deceased) through LRs
and others
....Appellant
Versus
Union of India and others
...Respondents
(3) RFA No. 1580 of 1990
Nafe Singh and others
....Appellants
Versus
Union of India and others
...Respondents
(4) RFA No. 1911 of 1990
Sardha Ram and others
....Appellants
Versus
Union of India and others
...Respondents
(5) RFA No. 2170 of 1990
Smt. Sunghi Devi and others
....Appellants
Versus
Union of India and others
...Respondents
R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990 [2]
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJESH BINDAL
Present: Mr. Hitesh Pandit, Advocate for
Mr. Rajesh Garg, Advocate for the appellants in
R.F.A. Nos. 1372, 1373 and 1580 of 1990.
Mr. Virender Gulia, Advocate for
Mr. Vikram Dhakla, Advocate for the appellants in
R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990.
Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Additional Advocate General, Haryana
for the State.
Rajesh Bindal J.
This order shall dispose of a bunch of 5 appeals, as the same arise
out of a common acquisition.
The land owners are in appeal against the award of the learned court
below seeking further enhancement of compensation for the acquired land.
The facts have been noticed from R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990.
Briefly, the facts are that vide notification dated 6.6.1985, issued
under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, `the Act’), the State
of Haryana acquired 68 acres, 7 kanals and 11 marlas of land situated at Village
Guda, District Karnal for the construction of L.P.G. Bottling Plant. The same was
followed by notification dated 30.7.1985, issued under Section 6 of the Act. The
Land Acquisition Collector (for short, `the Collector’) determined the market
value of land at Rs. 35,000/- per acre for chahi/nehri land; Rs. 15,000/- per acre
for gair mumkin land and Rs. 20,000/- per acre for Banjar Qadim land. Aggrieved
against the same, the land owners filed objections which were referred to the
learned Additional District Judge, Karnal, who keeping in view the material
placed on record by the parties, upheld the award of the Collector.
Learned counsel for the appellants submitted that the learned court
below has not considered the fact that CSSRI agriculture farm, Gudha is situated
just opposite the acquired land. The distance of the acquired land from G.T. Road
has not been considered at all which is approximately 4 kilometers. The same is
situated on the road leading from G.T. Road to Assandh. Panipat Refinery, for
which acquisition was made almost at the same time, is situated at a distance of 5
kilometers ahead of the acquired land. The compensation, as assessed by the
learned court below, is not in consonance with the material placed on record by the
appellants. It was further submitted that even the Collector in his award had
R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990 [3]
mentioned that average sale price per acre of nehri and chahi land was Rs.
56,000/-, whereas the award was given @ Rs. 35,000/- per acre. The submission
was that even if the transaction, on the basis of which the average price was
determined at Rs. 56,000/- per acre for one kanal of land, which was sold on
14.5.1984, the same can very well be relied upon.
On the other hand, learned counsel for the State submitted that fair
assessment of the value of the acquired land was made by the Collector, which was
rightly upheld by the learned court below, as the appellants had failed to produce
on record any evidence to show that the value of the land, as determined by the
Collector in the award, deserved increase. He further submitted that the Refinery,
which is situated at a distance of about 5 kilometers from the acquired land, where
the acquisition was carried on 25.3.1985, this Court in R.F.A. No. 2612 of 1991–
Balkar Singh and another v. State of Haryana and others, decided on 14.11.2003,
determined the compensation @ Rs. 26,624/- per acre for nehri/chahi, Rs. 13,333/-
per acre for barani and Rs. 6,650-/- per acre for banjar kind of land. The
submission is that keeping in view the distance of the land in question from G.T.
Road, which is less than the distance of the land of Panipat Refinery, fair amount
of compensation has been paid to the land owners at Rs. 35,000/- per acre for
chahi kind of land as against Rs. 26,624/- per acre for chahi kind of land for
acquisition for the Refinery.
Heard learned counsel for the parties and with their assistance
perused the relevant referred record.
From a perusal of the record, it is evident that the appellants did not
produce any evidence in the form of sale deed to show the fair value of the land at
the time of acquisition in the area. An application for leading additional evidence
was filed in R.F.A. No. 1372 of 1990 with which a sale deed pertaining to 4 kanals
of land, situated in village Kohand, sold at an average price of Rs. 76,000/- per
acre was placed on record. There is no site plan on record to show the location of
the land pertaining to this sale deed. A perusal of the site plan (Ex. P1) on record
shows that village Kohand is situated just quite close to G.T. Road. Railway
Station, Kohand is, in fact, just on the G.T. Road. Though in the absence of
location of the land forming part of the sale deed produced on record with an
application for additional evidence, it cannot as such be considered for the purpose
of determination of fair value of the acquired land, but still considering the fact
that village Kohand is located close to G.T. Road, the land under acquisition in the
present case is located at a distance of 4 kilometers from the G.T. Road and
Panipat Refinery is located 5 kilometers thereafter, the value of land even in three
R.F.A. No. 1911 of 1990 [4]
instances available before this Court also shows the same trend. The value of the
land, as is shown in the sale deed, produced by the appellants with an application
for additional evidence, shows the value at Rs. 76,000/- per acre, whereas the
value of chahi land in the present case, as assessed by the Collector is Rs. 35,000/-
per acre. For the land of village Bohli, which was acquired for the purpose of
Refinery, it was assessed at Rs. 26,624/- per acre.
Keeping the aforesaid facts in view and also that it is a case of no
evidence, I do not find that any illegality has been committed by the learned court
below in upholding the award of the Collector.
Accordingly, the appeals are dismissed.
(Rajesh Bindal)
Judge
November 17, 2008
mk
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