JUDGMENT

G.S. Sandhawalia, J. (Oral) - The present judgment shall dispose of above referred 200 appeals filed under Section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short 'the Act'), out of which 86 appeals have been filed by the landowners and 114 appeals have been filed by Union of India through Ministry of Railways (for short 'UOI'), who are aggrieved against the amounts awarded vide Awards dated 30.09.2009 and 01.10.2009 by the Reference Court, Fatehgarh Sahib.

2. In principle the Reference Court has granted 10% as severance charges on account of the fact that the land was acquired for construction of a Broad Gauge Railway Line from Chandigarh to Ludhiana. However, apart from that on the issue of solatium an additional 30% has been granted along with other statutory benefits along with amounts of Rs.6 lakhs and Rs.8 lakhs per acre, which has been granted by the Land Acquisition Collector (for short 'the LAC). Resultantly, the UOI is aggrieved against the grant of 30% additional solatium which has been prescribed under the statute.

3. The notification in question was issued on 19.09.2005 by invoking the urgency provisions under Section 4 read with Section 17 (1) of Act, whereby th