JUDGMENT

As the controversy involved in all the aforesaid appeals is identical, therefore, all the appeals are being decided by this common judgment. For the sake of convenience, facts narrated in F.A. No.703/2020 are being taken into consideration. All the aforesaid appeals arise out of the award passed under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act of 2013” for short) in respect of the acquisition of agricultural lands of various land owners for construction of the canal under “Indira Sagar Nahar Project”.

The facts of the case, in short, are as under :

1. The appellants issued Notification u/s. 11 of the Act on 3.9.2017 for the acquisition of land under the “Indira Sagar Nahar Project”. Thereafter, final Notification u/s. 19 was published on 17.11.2017. Notices u/s. 21(4) of the Act was issued to the land owners by way of publication in the newspapers. The land owners submitted their objection in writing and after hearing the appellants and the land owners, learned Sub Divisional Officer / Land Acquisition Officer passed the award dated 31.8.2018 . The information of the above award was given to the land owners on 10.9.2018. Thereafter, the land owners received the amount of compensation under protest and sought enhancement of compensation by submitting reference cases before the District Court. In the case of the respondents, the Land Acquisition Officer has awarded the compensation of Rs.58,46,737/- u/s. 37 of the Act of 2013.

2. The respondent submitted the statement of claim with documentary evidence to seek enhancement of the amount of compensation on the ground that his acquired land has an area 0.310 Hect. is situated hardly 500 mtrs. away from the Bypass of the Khandwa-Baroda Highway which connects the newly notified National Highway. The front portion of his land has been acquired, therefore, he is entitled to compensation @ Rs.1,15,00,000/- per Hect. It was further submitted that the acquired land is situated in Vill. Segaon which is an urban area of District Barwani, hence the land is having potential value for residential and commercial use. In the award, the guidelines of the years 2017 and 2018 framed for residential, as well as commercial properties, have not been followed properly, hence the land owner is entitled to enhancement of the amount of compensation. The appellants submitted an objection in the reference case by submitting that a just and proper amount of compensation has been awarded by the Land Acquisition Officer under the provisions of Sections 11, 19, 20, 21, 21(4) and 26 of the Act of 2013 and there is no scope for further enhancement.

3. On the basis of pleadings, the learned Reference Court framed six issues for adjudication. The land owner examined himself as P.W.1 and got exhibited 26 documents as Exh. P/1 to 26, out of which, Exh. P/17 to P/25 are the sale deeds of the relevant years to be used as an exemplar. The respondent, the land owner also examined Ravikant Chouhan (P.W.2), the then Patwari; Neha Chouhan (P.W.3), Manager of District Industries Center, Barwani; Narayansingh Nargave (P.W.4), Assistant Grade-3 in the Office of Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Officer, Indira Sagar Nahar Project, Barwani; Sunil John Minz (P.W.5), Assistant Director in the Office of Town & Country Planning Department, Khargone-Barwani; and Akash Chowkse (P.W.6), Dy. Manager in the office of National Highway Authority, Indore. In rebuttal, the appellants did not examine any witnesses and also not filed any documentary evidence. After appreciating the evidence that came on record, learned Reference Court has recorded the findings as under :

(i) The land under acquisition is adjacent to Khandwa-Baroda State Highway which is near National Highway 347B and;

(ii) the land in question has been included i