JUDGMENT :

C.A. No. 7459/1999.

Pursuant to notification issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act on 27-1-1984, lands in 13 villages were acquired and Shahbad Mohamadpur was also one such village. The High Court taking into consideration that certain other lands coming under different villages which had been acquired for the same purpose, namely Plan Development Area around Palam Airport in the vicinity of Delhi, found that compensation under market value of Rs. 47,224 per bigha would be reasonable and appropriate. In doing so, the High Court followed a decision of this Court in Satpal v. Union of India, 1997(11) SCC 423. The ground urged before us is that in view of the decision in Kunwar Singh v. Union of India, 1998(8) SCC 136 contiguity of villages could not by itself be sufficient to draw an inference of similarity in character of the lands in awarding the compensation and, therefore, the reasoning of the High Court is not correct. The High Court indeed did not rely upon the contiguity of the lands alone but it found that the nature/quality of the lands is by and large similar to those lands considered in Satpal's case. If that is the finding of the High Court, we do no