While adjudicating on the legality of the market value assessed by the reference court, the Himachal Pradesh High Court noted that the market value of the exemplar sale deed, executed after the date of issuance of notification under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act was not right and reliance was made to General manager, OIL and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd vs. Rameshbhai Jivanbhai Patel for the same.
Brief Facts:
All the appeals in the current case have been filed under section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act. The state government had issued a notification under section 4 of the same act for acquiring some land for the construction of Sarori-Rissa Road and the land to be acquired including the lands of the respondents in the current appeals. The market value of the land was awarded by the Land Acquisition Collector for the proposed land that was to be acquired.
The respondents here and other landowners filed reference petitions under section 18 of the land acquisition Act and the instant appeals arise out of those reference petitions. In the reference petitions, the compensation was reassessed and the benefit of consortium and interest under Sections 23 (1)(a), 28, and 34 of the Act was also awarded. Now the appellants are aggrieved by the award and have preferred the current appeal
Contentions of the Appellant:
The learned counsel for the appellant has contended that the impugned award should be interfered with because the reference court had based its findings only on one exemplar sale deed and since the sale deed was for a small area, it could not have been made a legal basis for determining the market value of the land.
Observations of the Court:
The Hon’ble Court then assessed the contentions of the appellant and the court then rejected the contention that the market value cannot be assessed because of the smallness of the land. Then for the next contention that the reference to the sale deed being later in time to the date of notification u/s 4 of the Land acquisition act was impermissible, the court referred to General manager, OIL and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd vs. Rameshbhai Jivanbhai Patel, where it was held that the assessment of the market value should be avoided on the exemplar sale transactions, which have taken place after the issuance of notification u/s 4. Accordingly, the court concluded that the assessment of the reference court of the market value of the exemplar sale deed, which was executed after about eleven months from the date of issuance of notification under section 4 was not right and it was concluded that the award passed in the reference petitions cannot be sustained.
The Decision of the Court:
The appeal was allowed and the impugned awards were set aside and the matters were remanded back to the reference court.
Case Title: Principal Secretary, PWD & others v. Mehar Chand & others
Coram: Justice Satyen Vaidya
Case No.: RFA No. 175, 176, and 177 of 2013
Advocates for the Appellants: Mr. Mohinder Zharaick, Additional Advocate General.
Advocate for the Respondents: Mr. Virender Chauhan, Advocate, vice Mr. Surinder Saklani, Advocate.
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