NATIONAL FERTILIZERS LTD Vs. JAGGA SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are the appeals by way of special leave against the judgment and order dated 13.07.2005 of the Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh, in Letters Patent Appeals determining the market value ofacquired land @ Rs.120/- per square yard (for short 'the impugned judgment').

(2.) The facts relevant for deciding these appeals briefly are that the National Fertilizers Limited (for short 'the NFL') is a Government of India Undertaking engaged in the business of manufacturing fertilizers and has a plant in Bhatinda in the State of Punjab. To meet the requirement of dwelling houses for the employees of NFL, the State of Punjab acquired 29.68 acres of land in village Bhatinda by notification dated 24.01.1983 issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short 'the Act'). The District Collector sent the market rates to the Land Acquisition Collector for different classes of agricultural or revenue land and these were for Nehri Rs.56,000/- per acre, for Barani Rs. 23,000/- per acre and for Gair Mumkin Rs.23,000/- per acre. The Land Acquisition Collector determined the compensation at 50% above the rates sent by the District Collector for each of the aforesaid classes of land in his award dated 19.03.1986. Not satisfied with the award, the landowners made a reference under Section 18 of the Act to the civil court. Besides the State, NFL was impleaded as a defendant in the reference. By order dated 29.04.1991, the learned Additional District Judge determined the compensation for all the three classes of land at a uniform rate of Rs.32.50 per square yard after considering two unregistered sale agreements (Exhibits A-X and A-Y) and the order of the High Court in Sadhu Singh's case determining the compensation for land acquired for extension of the military cantonment in the year 1976. The land owners challenged the order of the Additional District Judge before the High Court in Regular First Appeals. The State of Punjab and NFL also challenged the order of the learned Additional District Judge before the High Court in Regular First Appeals. The learned Single Judge of the High Court, who heard the appeals, sustained the determination of compensation made by the learned Additional District Judge and dismissed the appeals by a common order dated 09.09.1994.

(3.) Aggrieved, the land owners as well as NFL challenged the order dated 09.09.1994 of the learned Single Judge before the Division Bench of the High Court in Letters Patent Appeals. In the impugned judgment, the Division Bench of the High Court held that as Exhibits A-X and A-Y were unregistered and did not bear any date, these documents could not be considered for determination of compensation. The Division Bench also found from the site plan that the military cantonment for which Sadhu Singh's land was acquired was far away from the land acquired in the present case. The Division Bench also found that the land of Sadhu Singh was acquired for the military cantonment in the year 1976 whereas the lands acquired in the present case were included in the municipal limits of Bhatinda city in 1977 and around the land acquired in the present case, various colonies had come up in the municipal limits of Bhatinda. The Division Bench further found from the site plan that the land of Karam Singh which had been acquired for a municipal park was much nearer to the land of the land owners acquired in the present case. The Division Bench, therefore, took the view in the impugned judgment that the order passed by the High Court in the case of Sadhu Singh for the land acquired for military cantonment could not be preferred over the order of the High Court passed in the case of Karam Singh for land acquired for municipal park in the year 1983 for making the assessment of market value of the land acquired in the present case and determined Rs.120/- per square yard as just and reasonable market value for the land acquired in the present case and adopted the reasoning given in the order dated 08.11.1989 of the High Court (Exhibit A-15) in the case of Karam Singh (RFA No.906 of 1988).