JUDGMENT :

1. Leave granted.

2. The land of the appellants, situated in village Khora, Pargana Loni, Tehsil Dadri, District Ghaziabad, was part and parcel of the total land measuring 902.2046 acres which was proposed to be acquired by a notification dated 17.03.1988 published on 19.03.1988 under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (in short, “the Act”). It appears that finally, land measuring 337.892 acres only, including that of the appellants, was acquired and the award was passed by the Special Land Acquisition Officer on 01.02.1991, granting compensation at the rate of Rs.70 per sq. yard.

3. Most of the land owners, including the appellants, filed reference under Section 18 of the Act. The Learned Xth Additional District Judge, Ghaziabad vide an award dated 06.04.1998 partly accepted those references and enhanced the compensation at the rate of Rs.106 per sq. yard.

4. Various land owners then approached the High Court by way of First Appeals, for further enhancement of compensation. These appeals included First Appeal No.491/1998 (Veer Singh & others vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and others), First Appeal No.493/1998 (Megh Singh and others vs. State of Uttar Pradesh) and First Appeal No.477/1998 (Amar Singh vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and others) etc.

5. The appellants, however, did not file any appeal before the High Court within a reasonable time. They eventually preferred the first appeals in the year 2011. Their appeals were barred by limitation; hence, they applied for condonation of delay of 12 years and 353 days. The grounds taken by the appellants for condonation of delay were that due to illiteracy and poverty, they could not arrange the Court Fee and that they were advised to file the appeal(s) in September, 2011. They also put forward the plea that the first appeals against the same reference award were pending consideration before the High Court.

6. The High Court has vide impugned order dated 09.03.2016 declined to condone the delay and consequently, the first appeal(s) preferred by the appellants have been dismissed.

7. Meanwhile, the batch of first appeals preferred by other land owners, came to be decided on 04.07.2016, wherein the High Court enhanced the compensation at the rate of Rs.130 per sq. yard. The operative part of the judgment dated 04.07.2016 reads as follows:

“19. In view of the above discussion, all the appeals filed by the Claimants-appellants deserve to be allowed to the extent that the appellants shall be entitled to receive compensation @ 130/-per Sq. yard along with all statutory benefits and interest after adjustment of the amount already received by them. The deficiency in Court fees shall be recovered from the Claimants-appellants at the time of preparation of final decree.”

8. It is also a matter of record that some of the land owners, being still dissatisfied with the rate of compensation determined by the High Court, approached this Court in C.A. No.12631/2017 (Jitendra and others vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and another) & connected matters. A coordinate Bench vide order dated 12.12.2017 allowed those appeals in part, in terms of the following order:

“Delay condoned.

Leave granted.

The notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 was issued on 17th March, 1988. The Land Acquisition Officer granted compensation at the rate of Rs.70/-per square yard and the Reference Court enhanced it to Rs.106/-per square yard. The value determined by the High Court was Rs.130/-per square yard after making a deduction of 35% towards development cost.

In the facts and circumstances of the case, in our opinion, the only modification required in the impugned orders is with respect to the aspect that 25% deduction deserves to be made instead of 35% made by the High Court. We make deduction of 25% in the facts and circumstances of the case instead of 35%. Thus, the amount of compensation comes to Rs.150/-per square yard instead of Rs.130/-per square yard. The compensation amount is enhanced to