SWARAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present judgment shall dispose of above referred 200 appeals filed under Sec. 54 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short 'the Act'), out of which 86 appeals have been filed by the landowners and 114 appeals have been filed by Union of India through Ministry of Railways (for short 'UOI'), who are aggrieved against the amounts awarded vide Awards dtd. 30/9/2009 and 1/10/2009 by the Reference Court, Fatehgarh Sahib.

(2.) In principle the Reference Court has granted 10% as severance charges on account of the fact that the land was acquired for construction of a Broad Gauge Railway Line from Chandigarh to Ludhiana. However, apart from that on the issue of solatium an additional 30% has been granted alongwith other statutory benefits alongwith amounts of Rs.6.00 lakhs and Rs.8.00 lakhs per acre, which has been granted by the Land Acquisition Collector (for short 'the LAC'). Resultantly, the UOI is aggrieved against the grant of 30% additional solatium which has been prescribed under the statute.

(3.) The notification in question was issued on 19/9/2005 by invoking the urgency provisions under Sec. 4 read with Sec. 17 (1) of Act, whereby the land was sought to be acquired of five villages measuring 104 acres 3 kanals 14 marlas. The details of the land acquired of the said villages is as under:-