JUDGEMENT

G.S. Singhvi, J. — Whether the application submitted by the appellant under Section 18(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, the Act) was barred by time and Civil Judge (Senior Division), Junagadh (hereinafter described as the Reference Court) rightly refused to entertain his prayer for enhancement of the compensation determined by the Special Land Acquisition Officer is the question which arises for consideration in this appeal filed against judgment dated 16.8.2011 of the learned Single Judge of the Gujarat High Court.

2. The appellants land was acquired by the State Government along with other parcels of land for implementation of Mendarda Amrapur Road Scheme. Notification under Section 4(1) was issued on 4.3.1982 and the declaration under Section 6(1) was published on 7.10.1982. The Special Land Acquisition Officer determined the amount of compensation at the rate of Rs.110/- per Are for irrigated land and Rs.80/- per Are for non-irrigated land.

3. After passing of the award, the Collector issued notice to the appellant under Section 12(2), which was received by him on 22.2.1985. Similar notices were received by the other landowners on 22.2.1985 and 23.2.1985. As the copy of the award was not annexed with the notice, the appellant obtained certified copy thereof through his Advocate and then submitted an application dated 8.4.1985 to the Collector for making a reference to the Court for award of higher compensation with solatium and interest. The reference made by the Collector in the appellants case was registered as LR Case No.1/2000. The references made at the instance of the other landowners were registered as LR Cases Nos.2/2000 to 15/2000. In their claim petitions, the appellant and other landowners pleaded that their land had irrigation facilities; that they were taking crops of groundnut, wheat, fodder etc. and they are entitled to compensation at the rate of Rs.1500/- per Are. In the reply filed on behalf of the State Government, it was pleaded that the Special Land Acquisition Officer had correctly fixed market value of the acquired land after taking into consideration the location, type and fertility of the acquired land. It was also pleaded that the landowners are not entitled to higher compensation because they had accepted the award without any protest.

4. It is not clear from the record whether in the reply filed on behalf of the State Government, an objection was taken to the maintainability of the applications filed by the appellant and other landowners on the ground that the same were barred by time but the Reference Court did frame an issue in that regard. This is evident from the tenor of the issues framed by the Reference Court, which are extracted below:

1) Whether applicant proves that the compensation awarded is inadequate ? How much ?

2) What additional compensation, if any, he is entitled to ?

3) Whether this application is in time ?

4) Whether this court has jurisdiction to try this reference case ?

5) Whether this reference case is barred by S. 25 of L.A. Act. ?

6) Whether the applicants have accepted the awarded amount without raising any objection ? If yes, what is the effect ?

7) Whether the applicant is entitled to get the amount of solatium & interest?

8) What order ?

5. After considering the oral and documentary evidence produced by the parties, the Reference Court concluded that the landowners are entitled to Rs.450 per Are for the irrigated land and Rs.280 per Are for non-irrigated land with an additional amount of Rs.2 per square meter, but declined relief to the appellant and other landowners on the ground that the applications filed by them were beyond the time specified in Section 18(2)(b) of the Act.

6. The appellant and three other landowners challenged the judgment of the Reference Court by filing appeals under Section 54 of the Act which were dismissed by the learned Single Judge of the High Court vide judgment dated 16.8.2011, who relied upon the judgm