- (1.) In these Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 3588 to 3590 of 1980, the same award (dated July 20, 1972) of the Land Acquisition Tribunal, Ludhiana, is impugned primarily on the ground that the same has been passed in the light of a provisions which has later been declared as void or non-est by the Full Bench of this Court in Devinder Kaur v. Ludhiana Improvement Trust, Ludhiana and others, 1975 AIR(P&H) 241.
(2.) The land was acquired for the Ludhana Town Improvement Trust under the Land Acquisition Act as modified by Section 59 of the Punjab Town Improvement Act, 1922 (for short, the Act). One such modification was introduced vide Clause (10) of the Schedule to the Act. According to this amendment, sub-section (3) was added to Section 23 of the Land Acquisition Act and vide clause (a) of this sub-section it was made incumbent on the acquiring authorities to determine the market value of the acquired land "according to the use to which the land was put at the date with reference to which the market value is to be determined under the clause". This sub-section (3) as introduced by the Town Improvement has, as already indicated, been struck down by the Full Bench in Devinder Kaur's case . Thus the following conclusion recorded by the Tribunal in the light of this sub-section (3) is wholly unsustainable :- "No doubt the acquired lands had the potential value for being used for the construction of factories and residential house etc. because there were a number of buildings situate in the neighborhood of these lands, but according to sub-section (3) of Section 23 of the Land Acquisition Act, as it stands added in Punjab, when a land is acquired under the Punjab Town Improvement Act, 1922, its potential value is not to be taken into consideration for determining its market value. According to said sub-section (3) the market value of the acquired land is to be determined according to the use to which it was put at the time of its acquisition. This being the position, the transaction enshrined in the copy of the sale-deed, Exhibit PW./5 cannot be straight away made applicable to the acquired lands because that land had the potential value of being used for the construction of a factory or a house while the market value of the acquired land is to be determined as an agricultural land".
(3.) Thus for this reason alone, the impugned award of the Land Acquisition Tribunal dated December 28, 1972, is set aside and the cases are sent back to it for decision afresh in accordance with law and the observations made above. The parties through their counsel are directed to appear before the Tribunal on June 13, 1983. I, however, pass no order as to costs.;