SHANGARA SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this common judgment, we propose to dispose of Letters Patent Appeals bearing No. 571 to 573, 621, 623 and 1995 of 1989 and 569 of 1990 filed by the claimants as also Civil Appeals bearing Nos. 3257 to 3264 of 1989, which have since been remanded by the Hon'ble Supreme Court to be decided along with pending Letters Patent Appeals filed by the claimants, detailed above, vide order dated October 1, 1996, as all these appeals, whether filed by the claimants or by the State, are against the common judgment passed by the learned Single Judge in eight Regular First Appeals bearing Nos. 668, 712 to 714, 721, 923 to 925 of 1985.

(2.) Brief facts of the case reveal the State of Haryana, vide Notification dated June 12, 1981, published on June 30, 1981, under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (here-in-after referred to as 'the Act'), acquired 19 acres 7 kanals 3 marlas of land in village Khairpur (Sirsa) for public purpose, namely, raising Housing Board Colony. The Land Acquisition Collector divided the acquired land into three blocks and vide his award dated February 12, 1985, determined the market value at rates varying from Rs. 10,400/- to Rs. 17,200/- per acre depending upon the location of a particular part of the land vis-a-vis the Sirsa-Barnala road and other surrounding constructions. The claimants were not satisfied with the adequacy of compensation awarded to them and thus sought references under Section 18 of the Act. Learned Additional District Judge, Sirsa, vide his award dated February 12, 1985 reduced number of blocks to two and assessed the market value at the rate of Rs. 605/- per marla for the land on Sirsa-Barnala road upto depth of 60 yards and at the rate of Rs. 208/- per marla for the rest of the land. The claimants, still not satisfied with the adequacy of the compensation, so assessed, filed Regular First Appeals in this Court, wherein learned Single Judge determined the market value of the acquired land at Rs. 25/- per square yard, vide his order dated December 17, 1988. It is against this order that whereas State filed Special Leave Petitions bearing Nos. 3257 of 3264 of 1989, with the result already indicated above the claimants filed Letters Patent Appeals, noted above under Clause X of the Letters Patent.

(3.) Records of the case would bear it out that the claimants had placed on records sale instances, Ex. P93, P94, P87, P70, P6, P67 (P-90), P7, P45, P51 and P68 which pertained to acquired land itself. These sale instances, even though small, were, however, completely rejected by the learned Additional District Judge on the ground that in view of amendment of Section 24 of the Act, wherein it has been provided that any increase to the value of the land on account of same being put to any use which is forbidden by law or opposed to public policy, cannot be taken into consideration and the evidence on record does not show that these plots were sold out of the acquired land after getting necessary permission to the carve out colony in accordance with the provisions of Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975. This finding of the learned Additional District Judge has been set aside the learned Single Judge on the grounds that could not be assailed and indeed have not been assailed by learned State Counsel.