IMPORTANT POINT
Acquisition of land—Amount of compensation cannot be ascertained with mathematical accuracy.

JUDGMENT

V. GOPALA GOWDA, J.

These groups of appeals have been filed against the impugned Judgment and order dated 10.12.2010 passed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh. Since the grievance and prayer of all the appellant-land owners are similar, namely, for enhancement of compensation in respect of their acquired land in question, for the sake of convenience and brevity, we shall refer to the facts of C.A. No(s). 3982-3989 of 2011 which have been filed against the Judgment and award passed in R.F.A. Nos. 69 of 2007, 70 of 2007, 71 of 2007, 72 of 2007, 288 of 2008, 289 of 2008. All these R.F.A.s were disposed of in terms of Judgment and award of even date passed in R.F.A. No. 4538 of 2006, whereby the High Court enhanced the compensation in respect of the acquired lands to Rs.9,00,000/-per acre from Rs.6,60,000/-per acre as was determined by the Reference Court.

2. The State of Haryana issued a notification dated 22.08.2001 under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (in short ‘the Act’) for acquisition of 45.3 acres of land owned by the appellants situated at Pehowa, District Kurukshetra, for the public purpose, namely for construction of road, development and utilization of land for residential and commercial purposes. At the time of proposed acquisition, the nature of the land was agricultural and mostly vacant. Declaration that the land is required for a public purpose was made vide notification under Section 6 of the Act on 25.01.2002. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short ‘the Collector’) vide award dated 19.11.2003 assessed the market value of the acquired land at the rate of Rs.6,00,000/- per acre.

3. Being unsatisfied with the award of the Collector, the appellant-land owners filed objections claiming a market value of their land at Rs.60,00,000/-per acre. The Collector made a reference to the Addl. District Judge, Kurukshetra which is the Reference Court under Section 18 of the Act for determination of the correct market value of the acquired land. The learned Addl. District Judge vide his order dated 28.08.2006, on the basis of material evidence on record assessed the value at Rs.6,60,000/-per acre besides other statutory benefits under Sections 23(1A), 23(2) and 28 of the Act.

4. Regular First Appeals were filed by the appellant-land owners as they were dissatisfied with the compensation awarded by the Reference Court and sought for further enhancement of compensation for the acquired land, whereas the State filed the appeals praying for reduction of the compensation before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh.

5. After hearing the parties and going through the evidence on record, the High Court found that there was significant variation in the sale instances of lands located close to the acquired land as depicted in the sale deeds produced by the State as well as by the land owners. The High Court, vide its impugned Judgment and award dated 10.12.2010, by applying a thumb rule, determined and enhanced the amount of compensation at Rs.9,00,000/-per acre. Hence, these appeals are filed by the land owners with prayer for further enhancement of compensation in respect of their acquired land by determining the

correct market value.

6. The learned counsel for the appellants contended that the market value of the acquired land has not been determined by the High Court based on the sale instances duly produced and exhibited before the Addl. District Judge. The High Court has erroneously held that the compensation cannot be awarded for a large scale of land on the basis of sale instances of small pieces of land. The learned counsel has further contended that the High Court, despite appreciating that the land pertaining to the sale deeds produced by the land owners are located just outside the boundary of the acquired land, has failed to determine the correct market value of the ac