RATTI RAM Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In land acquisition proceedings pertaining to Award No. 79 of 1982-1983 in respect of the land belonging to the appellants, this Court finally fixed the land value at the rate of Rs. 76, 550/- per Bigha, in the Judgment dated 03.08.2004 in Delhi Development Authority v. Bali Ram Sharma and Other, 2004 AIR(SC) 4114.

(2.) Once the land value is fixed by the Court, it refers to the value of the land as per the Award passed by the Collector. That should carry all eligible statutory benefits. It appears that in the case before us, statutory benefits have been denied for a short period on the ground that the proceedings initiated at the instance of the appellants, remained stayed before the Reference Court. To quote from Paragraph-4 of the impugned judgment:

(3.) We fail to understand how the appellants could be denied the statutory benefits available under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") in respect of the value of this land fixed, merely because there was a period of stay operating, may be in a proceeding at the instance of the appellants. Those are not relevant considerations or factors at all for the purpose of grant of statutory benefits available to a person, whose land has been acquired in terms of Section 28 of the Act. Section 28 reads as under: