Tehri Hydro Development Corporation v. Narayan Singh Rawat

Aggrieved by the impugned award, the appellants have come up in the appeal. We have heard Sri V.B.S.Negi, learned counsel for the appellants and Sri Lokendra Dobhal, learned counsel for the respondent No. 1 and carefully examined the evidence on record. The only argument made by the learned counsel for the appellants is that the award relating to the actual value of the land acquired passed by the Reference Court is highly excessive and the sale deed which was made basis is not proper. The claimant in support of his case examined himself as P.W.1. He also filed 8 papers per list 26-C & 34-C as documentary evidence. The opposite parties/appellants also produced Sri Bachan Singh Negi as D.W.1 in support of their case but did not adduce any documentary evidence, through documents paper Nos. 6-C to 9-C in connection with the award of claimant. It is undisputed that the claimant’s Village-Malideval is situated on Tehri-Uttarkashi National Highway and the acquired land also lies on the same highway and near to Tehri City. It was also admitted to the opposite parties that no sale deed of Village-Malideval of the period of three years prior to the date of publication of notification in the gazette was available. It is also undisputed that there was ban on execution of sale deeds from the year 1992 due to construction of Tehri Dam. It has come in the evidence of P.W. 1 that the acquired land is fertile and is of good quality and every crops are grown on the said land. The land ties on the main road of Tehri City and every facility like, Bank, Post Office, Hospital, Intermediate College etc. are available there. The learned counsel for the respondent (claimant) vehemently contended that the Special Land Acquisition Officer made an award on 03.08.1995 of the land of Village-Bayali which is situated parallel to the village of claimant i.e. Village- Malideval. In that award the Special Land Acquisition Officer made basis the sale deed of Village-Malideval of the year 1990 in awarding the compensation. In the said sale deed the value of the land was fixed at Rs. 36,000/- per Nali for irrigated land, Rs.18,000/- per Nali for category-I land and Rs. 12,000/- per Nali for category-II land. Village- Bayali is situated 200 metres away from the main road, while Village-Malideval is situated on the main road. The Special Land Acquisition Officer committed error in making the sale deed to Village-Tiwad as exemplar sale deed in this case. The Reference Court, while recording its finding in issue No.1, came to the conclusion that the Special Land Acquisition Officer committed manifest error in not taking into account the rate fixed for the land of Village-Bayali. It has been proved from the evidence on record that the land of Village-Malideval is worthy in every angle than the land of Village-Bayali. There was ban in execution of sale deeds from

25.1.1992 due to construction of Tehri Dam and in that circumstance the value of the land of Village-Bayali should have been taken for assessing the value of the acquired land of Village Malideval and the Reference Court has rightly assessed the value of the acquired land. We are in agreement with the findings recorded by the learned Reference Court. The impugned order needs no interference by this Court. For the identical purposes, irrigated land measuring 11 Nali 10 Muthi, land of category-I measuring 3 Nali 13 Muthi and 1 Nali land of category-11 belonging to Mastan Singh and Manmohan Singh situated in the same village (Malideval, Tehri Garhwal) was also acquired by the respondents for construction of Tehri Dam in which the Special Land Acquisition Officer vide his order dated 31.03.2000 determined the value of the land @ Rs. 2434.78 per Nali for irrigated land, Rs. 1217.39 per Nali for category-I land and Rs. 811.59 per Nali for category-II land and awarded Rs. 64,261/- in total as compensation of the acquired land. Challenging the award of SLAO, Sri Mastan Singh and Manmohan Singh preferred Land Acquisition Reference u/s 18 of the Act before the District Judge, Tehri Garhwal in which the Addl. District Judge/FTC, Tehri Garhwal enhanced the amount of compensation assessing the value of the land @ 27,000/- per Nail for irrigated land, Rs. 13,500/- per Nali for category-I and Rs. 9,000/- per Nali for category-II land. Aggrieved with the order of Reference Court enhancing the compensation, the present appellant preferred First Appeal no. 123 of 2005 Tehri Hydro Development Corp. and another vs. Mastan Singh and two others before this Court, which was ultimately dismissed by this Court on 6th September 2006 and this Court upheld the order of the Reference Court. In the present case irrigated as well as land of I & II category of the claimant has been acquired for the similar purposes. The respondent/claimant had to abandon his immovable property and had toe rehabilitate another place therefore, the order of the Reference Court is liable to be affirmed. Keeping in view the circumstances above, the appeal has no merit and is dismissed accordingly. (B.C. Kandpal, J.) (M.M. Ghildiyal, J.) November 13, 2006: NCM: