B. C. PATEL, C. J.

( 1 ) A notification was issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 ( hereinafter to be referred to as, the Act ) on 25. 10. 1979 in respect of the land situated in Village Bohargarh, Delhi. The appellants land was also notified under the said notification. A declaration was also issued under Section 6 of the Act read with section 17 (4) of the Act on the same date. The Land Acquisition Collector (LAC) determined the market value of land at Rs. 4,300/- per bigha in terms of the Award no. 58/80-81 dated 19. 08. 1980.

( 2 ) THE appellants aggrieved by the same sought reference under Section 18 of the Act and the Reference Court held that the appellants would be entitled to compensation @ rs. 9,000/- per bigha. The appellants were still not satisfied and preferred an appeal under Section 54 of the Act, which has resulted in the impugned order whereby the compensation has been determined at Rs. 9,000/- per bigha.

( 3 ) AT the stage when the appeal was filed, the appellants sought enhancement of compensation to Rs. 14,000/- per bigha. However, almost 14 years after filing of the appeal, the appellants filed CM No. 1249/2000 seeking to amend the claim to rs. 50,000/- per bigha. Not only this, during pendency of the application, a further application was filed being CM No. 130/2002 seeking further enhancement to rs. 80,000/- per bigha.

( 4 ) THE applications and the appeal were both taken up for consideration on 09. 07. 2004 when the applications for amendment of the claim were rejected on the ground that the appellants had restricted their original claim before the LAC only to Rs. 14,000/- per bigha and, thus, the appellants would not be entitled to seek enhancement of the claim by the amendment application in view of the award being prior to the cut off date of 26. 07. 1984 when the amendments were made to the provisions of Section 25 of the Act.

( 5 ) IN the appeal, it was held that the land value would be Rs. 38,300/- per bigha in view of the decision dated 07. 02. 2003 in RFA No. 464/1988 titled union of India v. Amar singh since the factual matrix in respect of the date of the notification and location were identical. However, the claim was granted only to the extent of Rs. 14,000/- per bigha in view of the rejection of the amendment applications.

( 6 ) THE appellants thereafter filed the review application on the ground that there was an error apparent on the face of record in as much as the appellants had not restricted the claim before the LAC to Rs. 14,000/- per bigha, but had actually claimed rs. 40,000/- per bigha. The plea, thus, advanced was that the appellants would not be entitled to more than Rs. 40,000/- per bigha and since the land value determined was rs. 38,300/- per bigha, the appellant would be entitled to the said claim. This review application was allowed after condoning the delay in filing the same on 15. 04. 2005 by the Division Bench of this Court (Coram : Dr. Mukundakam Sharma, J. and madan B. Lokur, J. ). The amendment applications filed by the appellants being CM nos. 1249/2000 and 130/2002 were allowed subject to the contention of learned counsel for the respondent that the appellants should not be held entitled to interest on the enhanced amount from the date of filing of the appeal till the date of the application. The order passed on appeal was also recalled as a consequence thereof. It is in view thereof that the appeal has now been placed before the present Bench dealing with the land acquisition matters.

( 7 ) IN view of the aforesaid position, learned counsel for the respondent does not dispute that the appellants would be entitled to Rs. 38,300/- per bigha, which is also the plea of learned counsel for the appellants.

( 8 ) THE only question to be determined is whether the appellants should be held entitled to interest for the period for which the appellants did not claim the enhanced amount or move any application for enhancement of the claim.

( 9 ) LEARNED

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