KARAM CHAND Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AGAINST judgment dated 6.9.1988 of Hon'ble I.S. Tiwana, J., the learned Single Judge of this Court (as then he was) delivered in R.F.A. No. 1241 of 1987, Karam Chand and another v. State of Punjab and another. The respondent-State Government acquired land under notification issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (for short to be referred as L.A. Act) dated 23.9.1983 for construction of an approach road to high level bridge constructed over river Sutlej flowing through the Revenue Estate of village Jhaj. The land of the appellants Karam Chand and Agya Ram sons of Ram Rakha, residents of village Jhaj was included in the acquired land aforesaid. The Land Acquisition Collector awarded compensation for the acquired land which comprised of 'Chahi' as well as 'Barani' land at a flat rate of Rs. 12,634/- per acre. The landowners were dissatisfied with the compensation awarded to them. According to them the said compensation was highly inadequate as their land was 'Chahi' land and was of considerable value. At their instance a reference was made under Section 18 of the L.A. Act to the District Judge. The appellants contended before the District Judge that their acquired land was of high potentiality as it was located adjoining Garh Shankar-Nurpur Bedi and Nurpur Bedi-Anandpur Sahib roads. The village school was situated at a distance of one killa from the acquired land. The focal point of village Dumewal and the United Commercial Bank and the shops were situated quite near the aforesaid acquired land. The appellants alleged that they used their acquired land for growing vegetables which used to be sold in the city nearby and they had good earning from the said acquired land. The learned District Judge held that the market value of the land acquired as evaluated by the Land Acquisition Collector @ Rs. 12,634/- per acre was inadequate and he relied on the award/judgment (Exhibit P 17) of his Court passed in Land Reference No. 45 dated 4.3. 1986 where the market value of the land of both the types i.e. 'Chahi' and 'Barani' had been assessed at Rs. 20,000/- per acre. The acquired land in the said award Exhibit P17 forms part of the same compact area as involved under the notification of this case issued under Section 4 of the L.A. Act and had been acquired for the same purpose i.e. for construction of the approach road. Relying on this award, the learned District Judge assessed the market price of the acquired land at Rs. 20,000/- per acre for both types of land i.e. 'Chahi' and 'Barani'. Feeling dissatisfied with the aforesaid award of the learned District Judge assessing the market price of the acquired land at Rs. 20,000/- per acre they filed R.F.A. No. 950 of 1987 which came up for hearing before the learned Single Judge of this Court. The learned Single Judge held that the learned District Judge was quite justified in assessing the market price of the land acquired at Rs. 20,000/- per acre and he did not find anything wrong with the said assessment of the market price of the acquired land. Accordingly, the appeal was dismissed. The landowners were dissatisfied and felt aggrieved by the judgment of the learned Single Judge and they have now filed this L.P.A.

(2.) WE have heard the learned counsel for the appellants and learned Advocate General for the State of Punjab appearing for the respondents. We have carefully perused the judgment of the learned Single Judge as also of the learned District Judge and perused the records of the case.

(3.) 682 (Ex.P5) 16.8.83 0K-7M "Barani" "Gair Mumkin" 1,500/- 34,285/-