The main legal point established in the judgment is the application of the principles of 'Reduction and Deduction' and valuation of agricultural land in determining just and fair compensation for acquired land.

JUDGMENT :

1. This appeal under Section 52 of the Jammu and Kashmir Land Acquisition Act, 1990 arises out of the judgment/award dated 31.12.2013 passed by the court of learned District Judge, Rajouri (hereinafter to be referred to as the Reference Court) in file No. 123/Reference titled “Makhan Singh and others vs. Collector, Land Acquisition Northern Railway, Udhampur and another”.

2. The award has been impugned by the appellant on the following grounds :

(a) That the Reference Court has relied upon the sale instances, which cannot be accepted as a measure to determine the market price of the acquired land as it is settled law that the value fetched for the small portion of land cannot be made basis for determining the price of large chunk of land. The Reference Court while passing the impugned award, has not considered and applied the settled principle of "Reduction and Deduction" in fixing the just and fair amount of compensation, when big chunk of land is being acquired.

(b) That the Reference Court while passing the impugned award has failed to consider the fact that the land under acquisition is an agricultural land and it is settled law that when agricultural land is to be acquired, in view of the permanent restriction regarding user, it has to be valued only as an agricultural land and cannot be valued with reference to sale statistics of other nearby lands which have the potential of being used for urban development.

3. Mr. Vishal Sharma, learned DSGI, submitted that the Reference Court has wrongly enhanced the amount of compensation by taking into consideration the sale instances in respect of small piece of land for the purpose of determining compensation for the big chunk of the land acquired by the appellants and as such, the award is required to be set aside.

4. Mr. G.S. Thakur, learned counsel for the respondents argued that the learned Reference Court has determined the compensation by placing reliance upon the judgments passed by the Hon'ble Apex Court, after the respondents led evidence in respect of the unfair compensation paid to the respondents for the land acquired by the appellant.

5. Heard and perused the record.

6. The land measuring 273 Kanals and 12 marlas comprising various survey numbers situated at village, Bakkal, District Reasi was acquired by the respondents under the provisions of Jammu and Kashmir Land Acquisition Act, for the purpose of construction of Katra to Qazigund Rail Link Line Project and the final award was announced on 20.09.2005. The Collector fixed the following rate of compensation depending upon the nature of the land :

7. The respondents were not satisfied with the rates fixed in the final award, so they filed an application under Section 18 of the Act (supra) before the Collector for referring the case to the Civil Court on the ground that the compensation for the land has not been properly assessed, as the prevailing market value of the land was Rs. 1.25 lakhs per kanal. It was also stated in the application for making reference that the compensation of the land has been assessed in a discriminatory manner, as the land of the applicants was converted into standard Kanal and then the rates of compensation were fixed, whereas in the adjoining villages, Kuri, Batli, Judda and Surukot, the compensation of the land has been assessed on the basis of local kanal, which is equal to 13 marlas. It was also stated that in Panchayat Seer Sundwan and Lam Sura, the compensation of the land was assessed and awarded as per local kanal. After the reference was made in terms of Section 18 of the Act (supra), the appellant was put to notice. The appellant fil