RANJIT SINGH Vs. UNION TERRITORY OF CHANDIGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We shall deal with S.L.P. (C) Nos. 5053, 7396-98, 7400-7404, 7405-7407 and 7408 of 1980, as they are directed against a common , judgment dated 28-3-1979 of the High Court of Pun . jab and Haryana rendered in a batch of land acquisition first appeals.

(2.) An extent of 121.01 acres of land falling in the revenue estate of village Buterla was acquired for development of Sector 41 to be included within the city of Chandigarh pursuant to Notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short 'the Act') published in the local Gazette dated December 23, 1974. The Land Acquisition Collector by his award made under Section 11 of the Act classified the acquired lands into several categories having regard to their agricultural utility and determined the market value of each category of lands at rates varying between Rs. 3,000/- an acre and Rs. 18,000/- an acre. On references received under Section 18 of the Act, the Court of the Additional District Judge, Chandigarh, though maintained the categories of the acquired lands, enhanced the market value payable respecting them to rates varying between Rs. 2,500/- an acre and Rs. 4,280/- an acre. The Land Acquisition Collector sought reduction in the market value of the acquired lands determined by the Additional District Judge, Chandigarh by filing appeals in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. Some of the claimants filing cross-objections in those appeals and some others by filing separate appeals, sought from the High Court grant of further enhanced market value for their.. lands. The High Court disapproved the categorisation which had been made respecting the acquired lands by the Land Acquisition Collector and the Court of the Additional District Judge, Chandigarh and treated all the acquired lands alike because of its view that they had the potentiality for their utility in the construction of residential and non-residential buildings. It also enhanced the market value of all the acquired lands to a uniform rate of Rs. 33,000/-an acre. Consequently, it dismissed the appeals of Land Acquisition Collector and partly allowed the appeals and cross-objections of the claimants, by rendering a common judgment and making separate decrees dated March 28, 1979.

(3.) Claimants have filed the present Special Leave Petitions seeking from this Court further enhanced market value for their acquired lands. Learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the petitioner were entitled to grant of further enhanced market value for their acquired lands because of the judgment of the High Court in RFA No. 462 of 1977 rendered subsequently on May 10, 1979, whereunder the market value of the lands in revenue estate of village Mohali acquired earlier in the year 1971 for residential-cum-industrial purposes had come to be determined at Rs. 35,000 an acre. According to them, when the market value of the lands of village Mohali acquired in the year 1971 had come to be determined by the High Court at Rs. 35,000 an acre, the market value of the lands of Buterla village belonging to the claimants which lay between Mohali village and Chandigarh and acquired in the year 1974, requires to be determined at a higher rate.