BHIM SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted in Special Leave Petitions.

(2.) The facts are identical facts as taken from C. A. Nos. 8657-8680/2001 are as follows :

(3.) Against those judgments 281 First Appeals were filed. The State of Haryana challenged the judgments on the ground that the compensation awarded was excessive. The claimants prayed for further enhancements. These Appeals were disposed of by various judgments. In these Appeals the High Court noted that the Reference Court had relied upon earlier judgments in respect of earlier acquisitions for the same purpose. The High Court noted that in arriving at the compensation payable the Reference Court had relied upon judgments in the cases of M/s. Standard Rubbers v. State of Haryana and Smt. Gunga Devi v. State of Haryana. The High Court noted that the compensation awarded in these cases had been reduced in Appeals and by adopting a belting system, (in relation to lands located in Jharsa) compensation, at the rate of Rs. 213, Rs. 160 and Rs. 106 was awarded. The High Court noted that in the present acquisition the lands were not abutting any National or main State highway. The High Court thus rightly concluded that the belting system could not be applied in this case. The High Court then took a mean of the above-mentioned three figures to arrive at a figure of Rs. 160. The High Court noted that these figures were in respect of an acquisition of the year 1987 whereas the present acquisition related to the year 1990. The High Court held that the claimants would therefore be entitled to increase. The High Court held that there had to be some deductions because acquisition was of a huge area and there would be development costs. The High Court held that the deductions should be a minimum deductions and applied a deduction of 20 per cent, as against the usual deduction of 33 1/3 per cent. On the above basis the High Court held, in Suraj Bhan's case, that the claimants are entitled to receive compensation at the rate of Rs. 212 per square yard i.e. Rs. 10,26,080 per acre.