Hon’ble Sudhir Agarwal, J.—We have heard the learned counsel for the parties at length and perused the record of the cases carefully.

2. All these appeals have come up under Section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred as ‘Act, 1894’) read with Section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure arising from common award dated 31.5.2001 passed under Section 26 of the Act, 1894 by Sri Ahmad Shamim, VIIIth Additional District Judge, Ghaziabad after hearing 79 land acquisition references, made under Section 18 of Act, 1894, determining compensation payable to the claimants whose land were acquired by State of U.P. for National Thermal Power Corporation (hereinafter referred as ‘N.T.P.C.’).

3. The Court below has found that tenure holders whose land were acquired, are entitled to payment of compensation @ Rs. 43 per sq. yard. The claimants are entitled to interest @ 12% from the date of notification i.e. 18.8.1986 till the date of possession i.e. 28th February, 1987. They are also entitled to solatium @ 30%, for the period subsequent to 28th February, 1987; for interest @ 9% for one year w.e.f. 28.2.1987 and thereafter @ 15% per annum.

4. Both the sides have filed appeals. The beneficiaries i.e. appellant-NTPC for whose benefit land was acquired have come up objecting the award challenging rate of compensation. According to it, it is on much higher side. Some of the claimant-tenure holders have come up in appeals claiming that market value for determining compensation for the land acquired is on much lower side.

5. The facts, in brief, are as under:

6. A notification dated 5th August, 1986 was published under Section 4(1) of the Act, 1894 in U.P. Gazette on 18.8.1986 and also in two newspapers on 24th August, 1986 proposing to acquire 139.6483 Hectares of agricultural land i.e. 327.6413 acres (correct area in acres comes to 345.0784), of village Uncha Amipur, Pargana-Dasna, Tehsil-Hapur, District Ghaziabad. Notification under Section 6 was published on 11th October, 1986 in U.P. Gazettee and in local newspapers on 14.11.1986. The aforesaid land was acquired for the purpose of establishing a power plant in National Capital Region by N.T.P.C. Collector took possession over acquired land on 28.2.1987.

7. Special Land Acquisition Officer (hereinafter referred as ‘S.L.A.O.’), vide award dated 8.11.1988 determined compensation @ Rs. 54932.80 per hectare (approximately Rs. 33,500/- per acre/ Rs. 15,000/- per bigha/Rs. 5 per sq. yard) being the highest and Rs. 31,616/- per acre being the lowest, in respect of different category of land. For the purpose of determining aforesaid rate of compensation, S.L.A.O. took into consideration a sale-deed dated 15.7.1985 (paper No. 39 Ga).

8. Aggrieved by the aforesaid award, claimants whose land was acquired requested the Collector for making Reference under Section 18 of the Act, 1894 pursuant whereto 79 References came to be considered by the Court below vide award impugned in these appeals but we are concerned only with 53 References which have come up in these appeals.

Sl. No.	LAR No.	Appeal TPC/ Claimant	Plot No.	Area hectare/ sq. yard	First name of of the owner	Rate (Rs.)
						SLAO	Court
1	226/90	865/2002	275	1.9985/ 23902.06	Roop Chand	48,711.99	10,27,780.02
2	227/90	863/2002	409, 337, 228, 433B	5.7128/ 68325.08	Roop Chand	1,39,269.02	29,37,978.40
3	207/90	906/2001	194	0.1264/ 1511.74	Pyare	5528.17	65,004.82
4	585/90	908/2001	449	0.4046/ 4839.01	Har Lal	14,915.52	2,08,077.43
5	414/90	910/2001	239	0.1358/ 1624.16	Chandra Pal	6,324.82	69,838.88
6	415/90	911/2001	317	0.1994/ 2384.82	Sarad