BANTA SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Section 149 of the Code of Civil Procedure praying for permission to the applicants "to make good the deficiency in the court-fee and three months' time be granted to the applicants to pay the additional court-fee of Rs. 976/-."

(2.) The facts and circumstances under which this application came to be filed and the real purport of the application may now be noticed. A large extent of 2243.52 acres (10768 Bighas and 18 Biswas) were acquired under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, for the establishment of a military cantonment at Bhatinda. Section 4(1) notification was published in the Gazette on October 9, 1974 and the declaration under Section 6 on October 10, 1974. The petitioner's land formed part of the lands acquired. Notices under Section 9 of the Land Acquisition Act were issued and served on the landowners and interested persons including the petitioners on various dates. After hearing such of those landowners who filed objections and wanted to be heard, the Land Acquisition Officer divided the entire area into three belts 'A', 'B' and 'C' and further divided the belts into zones and blocks and awarded compensation at a rate ranging from Rs. 4500/- to Rs. 16000/- per acre and also granted the usual 15 percentum solatium and 6 percentum interest by an award dated June 11, 1975. At the instance of the landowners, the Land Acquisition Officer made as many as 161 land references under Section 18 of the Act to the Additional District Judge, Bhatinda. The learned Additional District Judge, Bhatinda, almost maintained the same three belts and the division of blocks and zones inside the belts and awarded compensation ranging from Rs. 5625/- to Rs. 20,000/- per acre. Aggrieved by that award of the Additional District Judge, Bhatinda, the present applicants filed R.F.A. No. 1700 of 1980 claiming enhanced compensation of Rs. 1,60,000/-. Almost all the other claimants also filed regular first appeals against the award of the Additional District Judge, Bhatinda, claiming various amounts as additional compensation. The applicants in Ground No. 4 of the Grounds of Appeal had made the following ground :-

(3.) The Division Bench of this Court partly allowed all the Letters Patent appeals filed against the judgement of the learned single Judge by a judgement dated December 8, 1982. In this judgement, the learned Judges accepted and confirmed the division of the lands into two belts. However, they granted compensation at the rate of Rs. 8/- per square yard for the second belt while confirming Rs. 15/- per square yard for the first belt given by the learned single Judge. The operative part of the Division Bench judgement reads as follows :