Honble BHAN, J.–Claimants / appellants aggrieved against the common/similar judgments and orders dated 20.12.1999 passed by the High Court of Himachal Pradesh dismissing their claim for interest @ 12% granted by an earlier order of the Division Bench of the same High Court in C.W.P. No. 510/85 dated 9.9.1985 on equitable consideration for depriving them of their lands without taking proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act and payment of compensation have come up in these batch of appeals.

(2). Facts being common and similar it would be sufficient to refer to the facts of CA No. 443 of 2001 for the purposes of deciding the controversy involved in these appeals.

(3). Some areas of Himachal Pradesh before re-organisation of the State of Punjab on 1.11.196 formed part of the erstwhile State of Punjab. Public Works Department, Government of Punjab in the year 1966 took up the construction of Solan-Jawanji-Dharja Road. After the re-organization of the States on 1.11.1966 the PWD Department of H.P. took over the construction. The road was finally commissioned in the year 1968. Possession of the land owned by the appellants comprising of Khasra No. 102/1 situated in Village Bagur, Tehsil and District Solan, along with the lands of the large number of villages that came under the said road construction plan was taken over in the year 1968. Though the possession of the land was taken over from the Land-owners in December, 1968 no steps were taken to formally acquire the land by issuing notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 [hereinafter referred to as the Act).

(4). Having failed to secure justice to get any compensation or even step being taken by the Government for acquiring the land of nearly 17 years, a public interest writ petition No. 510 of 1985 titled Chander Kant Sharma and & others vs. State of Himachal Pradesh was filed. The State of Himachal Pradesh failed to justify any valid reasons for not taking steps to get the land acquired and for not paying any compensation to the Land-owners. Finding grievance of the writ petitioners to be genuine the High Court vide its judgment and order dated 9.9.1985 directed the respondents to complete the acquisition proceedings within a time frame and further directed them to pay to the writ petitioners interest @ 12% per annum from the date of taking over of possession till the date of payment of interim compensation and of final compensation, if there is enhancement. It was observed that the aforesaid interest payable was in the nature of equitable compensation and such interest shall be in addition to the compensation, solatium and interest at the statutory rate which would be paid to the writ petitioners under the law whether awarded by the Collector or enhanced by the Court and such interest shall not be taken into consideration in any proceeding under the Act while awarding the statutory compensation (direction No. 3). The Division Bench gave the following directions for expeditious relief to the writ petitioners:

"1. The acquisition proceedings in respect of villages Ser Chirag, Tawa Talara and Gatool shall be completed on or before January 31, 1986 and those in respect of land situate in village Deon Dhar shall be completed on or before June 30, 1986.

2. The petitioners shall be paid as and by way of interim compensation, without prejudice to their rights and contentions to claim the compensation due to them in accordance with law in the course of the proceedings under the Act, a sum determined on the basis of the tentative market value set out in column No. 9 of the statements in a tabular form annexed to the affidavits of the Superintending Engineer and the Land Acquisition Officer. The interim compensation will be paid to the petitioners after explaining the aforesaid position to them against a receipt to be executed by them acknowledging the payment towards the ultimate compensation to which they become entitled in accordance with law. The payment will be mad

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