The main legal point established in the judgment is the assessment of market value under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, considering the potentiality of the land for residential and commercial purposes and the requirement for evidence to support claims for compensation.

JUDGMENT

G.S. Sandhawalia, J —The present judgment shall dispose of 66 regular first appeals, as mentioned above, since common questions of facts and law are involved in all the appeals. Reference is being made to RFA No. 615 of 2005, Gurpal Singh and others vs. State of Haryana and others.

2. The present set of appeals preferred both by the land owners and the State under Section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (in short 'the Act') are directed against the award of the Reference Court, Panchkula dated 30.11.2004 whereby, the market value of land falling in village Bana Madanpur, Hadbast No. 231 and Naggal Moginand, Hadbast No. 229 was assessed at Rs.6,44,000/- per acre. The basis for the assessment was an award dated 05.04.2002 passed in Lokinder Singh vs. State of Haryana wherein, for notification dated 04.05.1995 for village Bana Madanpur, Juriwala, sum of Rs.5,60,000/- per acre had been awarded. Similarly, for the notification dated 11.07.1995 also, the same amount had been awarded vide Ex.P-18 in the case of Barjinder Singh vs. State of Haryana.

3. The acquisition in question was initiated on 13.08.1997 under Section 4 notification which was for 52 acres 16 marlas of land falling in both the villages for the purpose of construction of Police Lines and staff quarters of police personnel. The Land Acquisition Collector, vide Award No. 2 dated 28.07.2000, for 40 acres 7 biswas of land in Naggal Moginand and 12 acres 4 marlas Bana Madanpur awarded the following compensation keeping in view the quality of the land:-

4. Aggrieved by the amounts awarded, the land owners approached the Reference Court under Section 18 of the Act. Potentiality of the land of both the villages for the purpose of residential and commercial was noticed to grant 12% increase on the earlier compensation granted. Reliance was placed upon another award dated 16.09.2002 in Purujit Singh vs. State of Haryana (Ex.P-13) wherein, Rs.5,60,000/- per acre had been awarded which pertains to notification dated 11.07.1995, which had also relied upon the earlier award of Lokinder Singh's case .

Accordingly, 12% increase was given for two years to determine the market value at Rs.6,44,000/- per acre. The Reference Court also made an arithmetical error as such while calculating the 24% increase for 2 years not on 5,60,000/- but by mistake on Rs.3,50,000/- which was awarded for the acquisition of the year 1989 and, therefore, calculated 24% increase as Rs.84,000/-. If 24% is calculated on Rs.5,60,000/-, the amount would come to Rs.1,34,400/- per acre and the value would further go upto Rs.6,94,400/-.

This aspect also the State could not dispute.

5. The Reference Court also came to the conclusion that the land was acquired for residential purpose of Police Lines and, therefore, uniform rates should be given as were also given for the earlier acquisitions for both villages and the land fell within the municipal limits of Panchkula and, therefore, discarded the type of land for assessing the compensation. The issue of enhancement for the fruit bearing and non-fruit bearing trees and super structure in tubewells in Rabinder Nath Gupta's case i.e. L.A. Case No. 256 of 2001 was denied on the ground that no document had been brought on record by the witness Brij Nath Shukla who was the alleged caretaker. The owner had not come in the witness box and, therefore, the statement was not accepted. Similarly, the brother-in-law's statement being the General Power of Attorney and the statement of PW-16 N.N. Sharma wa