JUDGMENT :

HARKESH MANUJA, J. 

Vide this common order, a bunch of 13 Regular First Appeals, details of which are given in the footnote of this judgment, are being decided as all the appeals have arisen out of common acquisition/Award involving common facts and question of law. For the sake of brevity, facts are being taken from RFA No.2553-2004.

2. By way of filing the present appeal(s), challenge has been laid to the decision dated 30.08.2004 passed by the learned Additional District Judge, Faridabad, (for short the ‘Reference Court’); whereby the reference petition filed on behalf of the respondents/landowners for enhancement of compensation was partly allowed.

3. Briefly stating, 2.36 acres of land, situated in Village Baswa, H.B. No. 98, Tehsil Hodal, District Faridabad, was acquired by the Government of Haryana vide notifications dated 09.06.1998 (published on 12.06.1998) and 26.06.1998 (published on 24.07.1998), issued under Sections 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, 'the Act'), respectively, for public purpose i.e. for ‘construction of Baswa Link Drain’. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short ‘the LAC’) vide award dated 24.09.1998 assessed market value in respect of the acquired land @ Rs.1,40,000/- per acre, besides all other statutory benefits under the Act.

4. Dissatisfied with the aforesaid award, the respondents/ landowners filed reference petition invoking Section 18 of the Act, which came to be disposed of by the learned Reference Court vide decision dated 30.08.2004; partly accepting the plea for enhancement of the market value by the respondents/ landowners and granting an appreciation @ 25% over and above the compensation awarded by LAC besides all other statutory benefits under the Act.

5. Aggrieved of the decision of the learned Reference Court, the present appeals were preferred at the instance of appellant State as well as respondents/ landowners.

6. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and gone through the paper-book as well as the records.

7. A perusal of the record shows that the sale deed dated 01.06.1998 (Ex.P1) vide which land measuring 7K-17M was sold for Rs.3,50,000/- with base price per acre @ Rs.3,56,688/-, consisted of Rect. Nos.75-76 of the revenue estate of Village Baswa. Meanwhile, the acquired land formed part of Rect. No. 93, in revenue estate of village Baswa, the then District Faridabad. Thus apparently, the abovementioned two parcels of land were not located too far within the same revenue estate. In such circumstances, learned Reference Court was required to take into account the sale instance Ex.P1 dated 01.06.1998 vide which 7K-17M of land was sold for Rs.3,50,000/- with market price per acre was Rs.3,56,688/- and wrongly discarded the same merely for the reason that the comparative location and potential of the land forming part thereof and the acquired land was not proved on record.

8. On the other hand, the sale instance dated 13.01.1999 produced by the respondents as Ex.R2 pertained to the period post- notification under Section 4 of the Act in the case in hand, was thus rightly discarded by the learned Reference Court and no interference is called for on this account. Accordingly, the market value of the acquired land while relying on the sale instance Ex.P1 is assessed at Rs.3,56,688/- per acre, especially when its date of execution is in close proximity to the date of notification under Section 4 of the Act.

9. Moreover, taking into account the fact that the sale instance dated 01.06.1998 (Ex.P1) pertained to 7K-17M of land and the acquired land was measuring 18K-13M, consequently, no deduction was warranted even on account of the smallness of area of the land comprised in sale deed Ex. P1. Further, in the given facts since the acquisition in the case(s) in hand has been carried out for the public purpose, namely, ‘for construction of Baswa Link Drain’ and as such the respondents did not suffer any loss towards optimum utilization of the area acquired and a