Punjab-Haryana High Court
Punjab State vs Gurbux Singh And Others on 25 January, 2012
Author: Rajesh Bindal
Bench: Rajesh Bindal
RFA No. 3256 of 1992 1
IN THE PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT
AT CHANDIGARH
RFA No. 3256 of 1992 (O&M)
Date of decision : 25.01.2012
Punjab State ...Appellant
vs
Gurbux Singh and others ..Respondents
Coram: Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rajesh Bindal
Present:. Mr. Ashok Aggarwal, Advocate General, Punjab with
Mr. Alok Jain, Additional Advocate General, Punjab.
Mr. Raj Kumar Gupta, Advocate for the landowner
in RFA No. 2281 of 1995.
Mr. Arnav Sood, Advocate for respondents No. 1 and 2
in RFA No. 3257 of 1992.
Rajesh Bindal, J.
This order will dispose of appeals bearing RFA Nos. 3256, 3257, 3474 of 1992, 2281 of 1995, 713, 1979 of 1996, 1280 and 3702 of 1998, as common questions of law and facts are involved therein.
The State is in appeal seeking reduction of compensation for the acquired land whereas by filing appeals the landowners are seeking enhancement thereof.
Briefly the facts of the case are that vide notification dated 24.3.1983 issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short "the Act"), the Government of Punjab sought to acquire land situated in the revenue estate of villages Babri and Hemrajpur, Tehsil and District Gurdaspur for construction of bye-pass at Gurdaspur. The Land Acquisition Collector (for short, 'the Collector') vide award dated 21.9.1986 assessed the market value of the acquired land of village Babri @ ` 26,422/- per acre and of village Hemrajpur @ ` 15,581/- per acre. Dissatisfied with the awards of the Collector, the landowner(s) filed objections, which were referred to the learned court below. On reference, the learned court below assessed the market value of the acquired land @ ` 45,000/- per acre for village Babri and @ ` 28,000/- per acre for village Hemrajpur. Now both the parties are RFA No. 3256 of 1992 2 in appeal before this court impugning the award of the learned court below.
Learned counsel for the landowners submitted that land of different villages was acquired vide same notification for the purpose of construction of bye-pass at Gurdaspur. This Court in RFA No. 2385 of 1990 titled as Balwant Singh Vs. The Punjab State through the Collector and another, decided on 12.11.2009, which was followed in RFA No. 1544 of 1993, titled as Kunan Singh and others Vs. Punjab State and others, decided on 07.04.2011, has assessed compensation for the acquired land of other villages @ ` 45,000/- per acre and the landowners in the appeals are also entitled to same amount of compensation.
Learned counsel for the State fairly submitted that the claim made in the present set of appeals is squarely covered by judgments of this Court in Balwant Singh and Kunan Singh's (supra).
For the reasons stated in the aforesaid judgment RFA Nos. 3256, 3257 of 1992, 2281 of 1995, 713, 1979 of 1996, 1280 of 1998 are disposed of in the same terms and RFA Nos. 3474 of 1992 and 3702 of 1998 are dismissed in default.
(RAJESH BINDAL) JUDGE 25.01.2012 sharmila