Limitation under Section 18(b) of Land Acquisition Act runs from actual/constructive knowledge of award contents if no Section 12(2) notice; market value from pre-notification sales with escalation.

JUDGMENT :

ROMESH VERMA, J.

1. The present appeal arises out of the award, as passed by the learned Additional District Judge Hamirpur, dated 23.9.2015, whereby the reference petition under Section 18 of the LAND ACQUISITION ACT 1894 (for short, the Act), as preferred by the claimants/respondents, has been allowed. Whereas, the respondents have filed the cross-objections for enhancement of the compensation amount.

2. The facts of the case are that the land was utilized by the present appellants-State for the construction of Water Supply Scheme (WSC) Hamirpur in village Ghanal Khurd, Mauja Bajuri, Tehsil and District Hamirpur. Notification under Section 4 of the Act was issued by the Land Acquisition Collector on 1.2.1999 and pursuant thereto, notification under Section 6 of the Act was issued on 21.1.2000. The Land Acquisition Collector, HPPWD, Central Zone, Mandi, vide award dated on 23.3.2002 awarded the compensation in favour of the respondents for the acquisition of the land as under:-

3. As far as house/structure and trees are concerned, it was observed by the LAC that neither there is any house/structure nor any tree is existing over the acquired land. The LAC awarded compulsory acquisition charges @ 30% of the market value of land as per the Act to the respondents in addition to the the market value of the land under Section 23(2) of the Act, which was worked out to be Rs.10078/-. Further, in addition to the above, an amount @ 12% per annum was ordered to be paid to the respondents in addition to the market value of the land under Section 23(1-A) of the Act from the date of publication of notification under Section 4 to the date of award of the Collector. Thus, compensation under the aforesaid provisions of law for the period w.e.f. 4.9.1999 to 23.3.2002 was worked to be Rs.10293/-.

4. The LAC also awarded interest @ 9% per annum for the 1st year and thereafter 15% per annum w.e.f. 4.9.1999 to 31.5.2002, amounting to Rs.11803/-. Thus, the total amount of compensation, as was finally determined and awarded for the acquired land, reads as under:-

5. Feeling dissatisfied with the aforesaid award passed by the LAC, the respondents preferred a petition under Section 18 of the Act before the learned reference court for enhancement of the compensation amount. Along with the petition, an application under Section 5 of the Limitation Act for condonation of delay was also preferred by the respondents and the same was filed on 27.2.2006.

6. The learned reference court vide its award dated 23.9.2015 allowed the reference petition and granted the compensation in favour of the respondents as follows:-

7. In addition to above, the learned reference court also held entitled the respondents for other charges as permissible under Section 23(1A), 23(2) and Section 28 of the Act.

8. The instant appeal has been preferred by the appellants-State against the award dated 23.9.2015, whereas the respondents have also preferred cross objections for enhancement of the amount of compensation.

9. I have heard Mr. J.S. Guleria, learned Deputy Advocate General, appearing for the appellants/State and Mr. Bhuvnesh Sharma, learned Senior Advocate, duly assisted by Mr. Parv Sharma, Advocate, appearing for the respondents and has also gone through the records carefully.

10. Learned Deputy Advocate General has made twofold submissions in order to substantiate his contentions. Firstly, according to