OM LATA Vs. STATE OF HARYANA & ORS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment shall dispose of RFA Nos.5401 of 2015; 4214 of 2016 (O&M) against Reference Court, Rohtak award dated 12.05.2015. The appeals under Section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 have been filed by the landowner and the beneficiary-Corporation who are aggrieved against the enhancement of Rs.3 lakhs awarded on the sum of Rs.27 lakhs which was the market value fixed by the Land Acquisition Collector vide his award dated 13.08.2010.

(2.) The reference Court has thus fixed the market value @ Rs.30 lakhs apart from Rs.6 lakhs which has been granted on account of severance. Similarly, Rs.2,98,000/- was granted for structures which was consisting of a boundary wall and a room of a plot which was acquired measuring 12 kanals 2 marlas of land situated in village Bahu Jamalpur, Dist. Rohtak. The public purpose for acquisition was for construction of Water Works for Industrial Estate, Rohtak and the notification under Section 4 was issued on 13.11.2009, was for 14 kanals 6 marlas.

(3.) The reasoning given by the Reference Court to the enhance compensation was that the land in question was falling on the National highway and the collector rate for the village Bahu Jamalpur has been fixed @ Rs.27,30,000/- per acre. The reference was made to letter of Joint Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Rohtak forwarded to Deputy Collector, Rohtak (Ex.R6) whereby the Joint Commissioner in the capacity of Enquiry Officer had inspected the land in question and report had been received from the Halqua Patwari that Collector rate of the land in question was Rs.40 lakhs per acre in the year 2012. It was further noticed that as per Ex.P15 it had been mentioned that the rate was Rs.30 lakhs for the land abutting the National Highway whereas the market rate was Rs.20 lakhs per acre. It was noticed that the village in question was closer to Rohtak city and as per the report of Patwari, Bahu Akbarpur (Ex.P9), the land was at a distance of 1 - 11/2 KM from village Bahu Akbarpur and the land of Bahu Jamalpur was below the level of road and further drain for dirty water adjoined the land in question. The Collector rate at the time of acquisition was Rs.30 lakhs per acre as per Ex.P13 whereas for village in question it was Rs.27,30,000/-. Resultantly, keeping in view the judgment of the Apex Court in V.Hanumantha Reddy vs. Land Acquisition Collector, 2003 12 SCC 642 the valuation was done wherein it was held that the land abutting National Highway would fetch more price than the land lying interior.