UNION OF INDIA Vs. MALKHAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS judgment shall govern the disposal of the following counter appeals preferred by the claimants and the cross objections preferred by Respondents Nos. 15 to 19, 23 to 33 and 103 to 119.

(2.) THESE appeals and cross -objections arise out of the proceedings for determination of compensation in connection with the acquisition of certain lands for the purposes of the following three projects under the Ministry of Defence of Union Government of India. The acreage of lands acquired for the respective projects and the compensation awarded by the Competent Authority are as noted in the schedule detailed below : -

(3.) IT is really painful to note that despite having reproduced the language of the relevant sections of the Act giving guide lines for determination of compensation the observations made by their Lordships of the Supreme Court and the High Courts in various cases and despite having assured while mentioning each and every piece of evidence that the same would be considered later on, at the time of deciding the quantum of compensation, the learned Arbitrator at the end, all of a sudden found it convenient to increase the amount of compensation by twenty -four lacs simply by one stroke of pen by saying that since the claimants have claimed the compensation at 5 to 10 times more than that determined by the Competent Authority, they should at least get double the amount of compensation. It was really fortunate that the claimants demanded compensation only at five to ten times more than that was recommended by the Competent Authority because, according to the test applied by the Arbitrator, the amount should have been increased to 96 lacs if the claimants would have demanded ten to twenty times more.