Jatinder Singh Vs. Punjab State and anr. - Court Judgment

Excerpt:
property - acquisition - development charge - section 4 of the land acquisition act, 1894 - suit property acquired by respondents as per notification issued under section 4 of act and compensation awarded - landlord sought enhancement - compensation enhanced - hence, present appeal as well as cross appeal filed by respondent - held, acquired land was purely agricultural at time of issuance of notification, therefore, cut of 1/3rd in respect of development charges has to be applied to value which comes to assessed amount per acre and in such manner, value of acquired land comes to enhanced value - thus, compensation is, accordingly re-determined for land abutting main road whereas value of land beyond one killa from main road is determined less value - appellants shall also be entitled to all statutory benefits of amended act with cost of appeals - with these observations, appeals filled by appellants are allowed whereas appeals filed by respondent against impugned award are dismissed - - 1. this judgment shall dispose of 50 regular first appeals filed by the landowners as well as the state of punjab, bearing nos. 1,70,590/-.4. the landowners were not satisfied with the award of the collector. at that time, the commissioner had recommended rate of chahi land @rs. it has also come on record that even chandra committee has recommended that compensation should not be less than rs.rakesh kumar jain, j.1. this judgment shall dispose of 50 regular first appeals filed by the landowners as well as the state of punjab, bearing nos. 744, 1715 to 1724, 1726 to 1741, 826 to 830, 833, 745 to 749, 3184, 2518, 1481, 1470 to 1475, 955, 1174 and 1175 of 1999.2. vide notification issued under section 4 of the land acquisition act, 1894 (for short, 'the act') dated 24.12.1993 land in three villages namely, satiawala, bazidpur and butewala in district ferozepur, was acquired at public expenses, for public purposes, for construction of building for the establishment of an engineering college on the land abutting on the southern side of ferozepur-moga road.3. the land acquisition collector (for short, 'the collector'), vide his award dated 19.6.1995 determined the compensation of the acquired land within one acre on g.t. road @ rs. 1,20,000/- per acre and beyond one acre from g.t. road @ rs. 1,00,000/- per acre, besides awarding other statutory benefits in terms of the provisions of amended act. the collector also awarded compensation for trees @ rs. 41,585/- and tubewell and structures @ rs. 1,70,590/-.4. the landowners were not satisfied with the award of the collector. they filed objections under section 18 of the act and claimed compensation @ rs. 12 lac. per acre.5. the respondents refuted the claim of the landowners and alleged that adequate compensation has already been awarded by the collector which does not call for any further enhancement.6. in order to substantiate their respective stand, the claimants examined rattan singh as aw-1, ramesh kumar as aw-2, jagir singh as aw-3, sunil shukla as aw-4, gurpreet singh as aw-5, dharam singh as aw-6, rachhman singh, one of the claimants as aw-7, mohinder singh as aw-8, sher chand as aw-9, balbir singh as aw-10, jarnail singh as aw-11, sukha singh as aw-12, mohan singh as aw-13, pargat singh as aw-14 and gurdev singh as aw-15. on the other hand, the respondents produced yashpal as rw-1 and arun chander assistant shaheed bhagat singh engineering college, ferozepur as rw-2.7. the claimants also moved an application for additional evidence which was allowed and they examined satish kumar as aw-16. in rebuttal, the respondents examined rw-3 swaran singh and rw-4 jit singh. both the parties also led documentary evidence. in respect of land of village satiawala, possession was taken vide rapat no. 154 (ex.a-1), in respect of land of village bazidpur, it was taken vide rapat no. 125 (ex.a-3) and in respect of land of village butewala, it was taken vide rapat no. 150 (ex.a-4). it was alleged by the claimants that the acquired land is touching main moga-ferozepur road and on the other side of the road, there is one solvent plant and in front of the p.a.u. complex, there is a petrol pump and amrit soap mills towards ferozepur side from the solvent plant. there is one milk plant and warehousing godowns in front of the circuit house. guru nanak rice mills, and another rice mill are in front of the acquired land across the road. there is shopping complex, brick kiln, number of shops in front of the b.s.f. headquarters colony i.e. on the both sides of moga-ferozepur road up to 5-6 kilometers, there are factories, saw mills, petrol pump, rice mills, number of shops, weigh bridge, godowns etc., whereas the acquired land is at a distance of 4 kilometers from ferozepur city.8. the learned reference court while appreciating the evidence also found that the claimants have produced sale deeds exs.a-10 to a-35 out of which sale deeds exs.a-10 dated 5.10.1993, ex.a-11 dated 11.10.1993, a-12 dated 05.10.1993, a-13 dated 16.4.1993, a-26 dated 1.6.1993, a-27 dated 5.10.1993 were executed within one year from the date of issuance of notification under section 4 of the act. average price of six sale deeds which were executed one year prior to the issuance of notification under section 4 of the act, were found to be rs. 5,91,000/- per acre. it has come on record that two years prior to the acquisition, 173.6 marlas of land was acquired for polytechnical college located at a distance of 3/4 kilometers from the pakistan border. at that time, the commissioner had recommended rate of chahi land @ rs. one lac per killa and of gair mumkin land @ rs. 1,20,000/- per killa. there is a report of chandra committee, as per which price of the land w.e.f. 1.4.1995 was fixed @ rs. 55,000/- per killa in case of chahi/nehri land, @ of rs. 35,000/- per killa for barani land and @ rs. 25,000/- per killa for banjar land situated within 3 kilometers from international border. from 3 kilometers up to 8 kilometers, price of land was fixed @ rs. one lac per killa in case of chahi/nehri land, @ rs. 55,000/- per killa for barani land, @ rs. 35.000/- per killa for banjar land. beyond 8 kilometers of pakistan border, price of the land was fixed @ rs. 1,40,000/- per killa for chahi/nehri land, @ rs. one lac per killa for barani land and rs. 50.000/- per killa for banjar land. the price of the agricultural land situated within the municipal limits was fixed @ rs. 4 lacs per killa, whereas the price of land situated upto 2 kilometers from the municipal limits and cantonment board, adjoining the road on both sides was fixed at the rate of rs. 3 lacs per killa. it has been observed by the reference court that in the present cases, inspite of recommendations of chandra committee, price of the acquired land has been fixed @ rs. 1,20,000/- per killa within one acre adjoining die main road whereas price of the acquired land beyond one acre was fixed @ rs. one lac. per killa, whereas in the present case, acquired land is on the road side. petrol pump, rice shellers, soap factory, fish farm, pig farm, residential quarters, office of b.s.f., circuit house, different shops and abadi is near the acquired land which is situated at a distance of 1/2 to 3/4 kilometers from ferozepur cantt. it has also come on record that the entire acquired land of the three different villages is situated in one compact block. it was thus observed that keeping in view the report of chandra committee, price of the acquired land cannot be less than rs. 3 lacs per acre. the learned reference court although observed that the sale deeds executed within one year prior to the date of issuance of notification under section 4 of the act gives an average sale price of approximately rs. 5,91,000/- per acre, but as per report ex.a-6, average price of the land comes out to rs. 3,54,689/- per acre. the learned reference court thus awarded compensation to the tune of rs. 3,50,000/- per acre for land adjoining the main moga-ferozepur road @ rs. 3,30,000/- per acre on the back side of the land adjoining the main moga-ferozepur road.9. learned counsel for the appellants has vehemently contended that the learned reference court has committed a palpable error in awarding compensation in two categories of rs. 3,50,000/- per acre and rs. 3,30,000/- per acre despite the fact that it has been repeatedly observed in the impugned award that as per different sale deeds executed within one year prior to the issuance of notification under section 4 of the act, the average price of the acquired land comes out to be rs. 5,91,000/- per acre approximately. it is submitted that once it is found repeatedly by the court below that the average sale price is rs. 5,91,000/- per acre, then there was no occasion for awarding the compensation @ rs. 3,50,000/- per acre and rs. 3,30,000/- per acre. it was thus submitted that the claimants should be awarded compensation @ rs. 5,91,000/- per acre which has been found to be an average of all the sale deeds which have been executed prior to the issuance of notification under section 4 of the act, at uniform rate for all types of land.10. as against this, learned counsel for the respondents-state while opposing the case set up by the land owners and pursuing their appeals for the purpose of reduction of compensation, has vehemently contended the sale deeds exs.r-1 to r-6 which have been proved by rw-1 yash pal by which average price of the land comes to rs. 38,000/- per acre have not been given due weightage on the ground that the same have not been proved by producing the vendor and vendee. it is further submitted that if the average of the sale price arising out of sale deeds exs.r-1 to r-6 is not relied upon by this court, even then 1/3rd cut has to be applied to the value arising out of the average price assessed by the learned reference court @ rs. 5,91,000/- per acre of the sale deeds executed within one year prior to the issuance of notification under section 4 of the act.11. i have heard learned counsel for the parties and have perused the record with their assistance.12. no doubt that the acquired land is situated in one compact block which has been acquired for the public purpose namely for setting up of engineering college. it is also found to be 1/2 to 3/4 kilometers away from the ferozepur cantt. the acquired land is on the road side having petrol pump, rice shellers, soap factory, fish farms, pig farms, railways quarters, office of the b.s.f., circuit house and abadi near it. it has also come on record that even chandra committee has recommended that compensation should not be less than rs. 3 lacs per acre if the land is at a distance of 2 kilometers from municipal limits or cantonment board. since the collector himself has also awarded the compensation @ rs. 1,20,000/- per acre up to one acre from the g.t. road and rs. one lac per acre beyond it, the sale deeds exs.r-1 to r-6, which gives only an average price of rs. 38,000/- per acre is less than the award of the collector and are, therefore, deserves to be ignored.13. insofar as the impugned award is concerned, the reference court has repeatedly held that the sale deeds executed within one year prior to the issuance of notification under section 4 of the act gives an average price of the land to the tune of rs. 5,91,000/-per acre. thus, i intend to take this price of the acquired land, but at the same time, this fact cannot be ignored that the acquired land was purely agricultural at the time of issuance of notification under section 4 of the act, therefore, a cut of 1/3rd in respect of development charges has to be applied to the value of rs. 5,91,000/- per acre which comes to rs. 1,97,000/- per acre and in this manner, the value of the acquired land comes to rs. 3,94,000/- per acre. thus, the compensation is, accordingly redetermined for the land abutting the main moga-ferozepur road @ rs. 3,94,000/- per acre whereas value of the land beyond one killa from the main moga-ferozepur road is determined @ rs. 3,74,000/- per acre. the appellants shall also be entitled to all the statutory benefits of the amended act with cost of the appeals. with these observations, the appeals filled. by the claimants are allowed whereas appeals filed by the state of punjab against the impugned award are dismissed without any order as to costs.