Baru Ram & Ors. v. Mr. Y.P. Malik, Advocate, Mr. R.K. Malik, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Vikas

Firstly, topography of both the villages is to be seen. The land of village Siwah abuts the Grand Trunk road (GT road) leading from Panipat to Delhi. The land of village Binjole abuts the road leading from Panipat to Rohtak. Both the villages are surrounded by National Fertilizer Limited, a Public Sector Undertaking, number of other factories such as Pipeline Factory, M/s Harrison Exports, Sethi Group International, S.P. Spinners, schools and Sector 29 and 29 Part II of Panipat. Both the villages are within the municipal limits of Panipat. Panipat is an industrial hub of State of Haryana. The topography of both the villages is depicted in the site plan Annexure A-1 and described by Surinder Kumar (PW-1), Adarsh Kumar (PW-7) and S.P. Sethi, Sub-Divisional Officer, Public Health (RW-1) who appeared in the cases pertaining to village Binjole. In view of this, the acquired land had great potential value of RFA No. 3153 of 2002. (3) development for residential, commercial and industrial purpose. In such a situation, there is no justifiable ground that any area could be valued by reason of its location or any of its particular feature so as to form a distinct part of property. Belting may be useful only from that angle when depth and remoteness of areas affect economic considerations and indicate possible variations in prices. Such being the position, the market value of the acquired land should not be assessed by applying the belting system. This being so, this Court rejects the approach of the Court of Reference, whereby, belting patron for the purpose of working out the compensation was applied in case of land situated in village Binjole.

9. The next point for consideration is as to what method should be adopted for determining the market value of the acquired land. The best evidence to assess the market value of the acquired land would be the sale transactions in respect of the acquired land; the time at which the property came to be sold; the purpose for which it is sold; nature of the consideration; and the manner in which the transaction came to be brought out are the relevant factors.

10. Land owners of village Binjole have relied upon four sale deeds Exhibit P-1, P-9, P-10 and P-12. For facilitation, the chart of the sale-deeds is tabulated as under:- Exhi Sr N o Date of Sale 1 P-12 9.3.1993 Area Amount Average Per sq. Average Per 2 Biswas 13 Biswansi Rs.90000/- Rs.478/- Rs.23,17,021.25 2 P-10 19.8.1993 9 Biswas 6 Rs.190000/- Rs.408/- Rs.19,77,634.4 3 P-1

9.2.1994 Biswansi 2450 Sq. Yrds. Rs.383000/- Rs.156/- Rs.755185.20 4 P-9

28.4.1994 4 Biswas 5 Rs.Rs.85000/ Rs.400/- Rs.19,36,000/- Biswani

11. The Court of Reference has taken into consideration the sale deed (Exhibit P-1) only ignoring the remaining three sale-deeds without assigning any tenable reason, simply observing that there was a spiraling trend towards price escalation of the land situated in and around the acquired land and the same had potential value of development for residential, commercial and industrial purpose.

12. As per aforesaid sale transactions, the average market value of the acquired land comes to Rs.17,46,460/- per acre. This figure has been calculated by this Court with the assistance of the counsel for the appellant as well as the counsel for the State.

13. Since the aforesaid value has been determined on the basis of the sale instances which relate to small piece of land, therefore, some discount by way of deduction has to be made as the acquired land was a large chunk. In considered opinion of this Court, 30% cut to the aforesaid valuation would be just and appropriate in the given circumstances of the instant case.

14. Now the next question arises as to what should have been the market value of acquired land of village Siwah ? Qua the land of village Binjole, the Land Acquisition Collector assessed the market value at the rate of Rs.6 lacs per acre upto the depth of 3 acres from the canal and the rest of the land at the rate of Rs.5 lacs per acre. The purpose of acquisition of the land of both the villages was the same. There is only gap of 47 days in the two notifications. Notwithstanding that, the Land Acquisition Collector, that is, the functionary of the State Government applied different yardsticks while assessing the market value of the lands situated in village Siwah and Binjole. Unfortunately, the Court of Reference also did not take note of this glaring error on the part of the official of the State Government and rather upheld the price assessed by the Collector. Indisputably, the acquired land of village Siwah is much better situated than village Binjole as described in paragraph No. 8 of this judgment. In this view of the matter, it would be in the fitness of things to determine the market value of the acquired land of village Siwah at the same rate as that of village Binjole.

15. On the basis of the above, the gross market value of the acquired land of both the villages is assessed at the rate of Rs.17,46,460/- per acre. Applying 30% cut to the aforesaid valuation, the market value of the acquired land is assessed at the rate of Rs.12,22,550/- per acre.

16. In upshot for the reasons recorded supra, the land owners of village Binjole and Siwah will be entitled to compensation at the rate of Rs.12,22,550/- per acre. Besides above, the land owners will also be entitled to the statutory sum in accordance with Section 23(1-A) and solatium at the rate of 30% on the market value under Section 23(2) of the Act. They will also be entitled to interest as provided under Section 28 of the Act. Thus, the appeals filed by the land owners are accepted in the manner indicated above and that of the State are dismissed. (NAWAB SINGH) JUDGE

23.3.2010. SN