HARKESH MANUJA, J. (ORAL)

Vide this common order, a bunch of 10 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 identical facts and question of law. For the sake of brevity, facts are being taken from RFA No.2132-2002.

By way of present appeal(s), challenge has been laid to the Award dated 12.11.2001 passed by the learned Addl. District Judge, Bathinda (for short, “the Reference Court”), whereby the benefit of interest on solatium component has been declined to the appellants / landowners.

Briefly stating, some land forming part of the revenue estate of Villages Bucho Khurd and Bucho Kalan was acquired for public purpose, namely, “for establishment of the Bathinda Cantonment”, vide notifications dated 10.05.1979 and 04.10.1979 issued under Sections 4 & 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short the ‘1894 Act’) respectively. Award under Section 11 of the 1894 Act was passed by the Land Acquisition Collector (for short ‘the LAC’) on 30.03.1981, thereby, besides granting all other statutory benefits under the 1894 Act, it assessed the market value in the following manner:-

Being aggrieved, some of the other landowners filed objections under Section 18 of the 1894 Act which was disposed of by the learned Reference Court vide decision dated 06.11.1985 and the market value was re-assessed to the following effect:-

“……..learned Additional District Judge, Bathinda vide award dated 06-11-1985 fixed the market value of the land of Village Bhucho Khurd as under:-

i) Land abutting in the main road Bathinda-Barnala National highway on both sides upto the depth of 250 meters throughout the length of the village; Rs.32,770/- per acre

ii) Nehri, Chahi and Nehri/Chahi Rs.27,305/- per acre

iii) Barani Rs.12,500/- per acre

iv) Banjar Kadim & Gair Mumkiun Rs.6,250/- per acre

Vide the abovesaid award dated 06.11.1985, the learned Additional District Judge, Bhathinda fixed the market value of the acquired land of village Bhucho Kalan as under:-

i) Land abutting in the main road Bathinda-Barnala upto the depth of 500 meters. Rs.31,000/- per acre

ii) Nehri, Chahi and Nehri/Chahi Rs.30,000/- per acre

iii) Barani Rs.14,000/- per acre

iv) Banjar Kadim & Gair Mumkiun Rs.8,000/- per acre”

Still aggrieved, the said landowners approached this Court having preferred RFAs which were disposed of vide decision dated 21.05.1987 with lead case RFA No. 440 of 1986, titled “Zora Singh vs. Union of India and anr.” The relevant portion therefrom is extracted hereunder:-

“To sum up the above discussion, I determine the market value of the land acquired in the revenue estates of the three villages of Mehna, Bhucho Khurd and Bhucho Kalan as under:-

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It is further made clear that the land owners shall be entitled to solatium at the rate of 30% of the market value of the acquired land, an additional amount at the rate of 12% per annum under section 23(1-A) of the Act, and interest at the rate of 9% for a period of one year from the date of their dispossession and at the rate of 15% per acre for the period subsequent thereto till the payment of the total amount of compensation to them.

It has been brought to my notice that most of the land owners have claimed in those appeals much higher compensation than what has been awarded by me through this judgment but there are a few cases where-in the claims have been made at a less value. In such cases, I follow the ratio of Bhag Singh's case (supra) and direct