- (1.) Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (to be referred as the petitioner-Corporation) decided to open in village Suchi Pind, district Jalandhar Petroleum Oil Depot for storage and distribution facilities for various petroleum products. They requested the State of Punjab (respondent No. 1) vide letter dated 18.4.1994 to acquire about 14 acres 3 marlas of land in the said village. Accordingly, respondent No. 1 issued notification dated 25.6.1996 under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (Act of 1894) for acquiring land measuring 13 acres, 5 kanals and 2 marlas in village Suchi Pind. It was followed by a notification dated 7.1.1997 under Section 6 of the Act of 1894. Respondent No. 1 vide letter dated 26.2.1997 informed the petitioner- Corporation that the tentative price of the land acquired was about 16 lacs per acre and 80% of the amount so determined was remitted by the petitioner-Corporation to the Land Acquisition Collector-cum Sub Divisional Magistrate (Civil), Jalandhar, (respondent No. 2) vide demand draft dated 5.3.1997. However, vide award dated 6.1.1999, (Annexure P-6), respondent No. 2 awarded compensation for the acquired land at the rate of Rs. 27 lacs per acre. It has been challenged in the present writ petition.
(2.) To complete the narration of facts, it may also be mentioned that some of the land owners had filed land references under Section 18 of the Act of 1894 in the Court of Additional District Judge, Jalandhar for claiming compensation at enhanced rate from Rs. 27 lacs per acre but the Additional District Judge, Jalandhar-cum- Land Acquisition Tribunal vide judgment dated 17.1.2003 up-held the compensation awarded by the Land Acquisition Collector at the rate of Rs. 27 lacs per acre and accordingly the petition filed by the land owners was dismissed. It was conceded before me by the learned Counsel for the parties that the said judgment has become final. The submission of learned Counsel for the petitioner was that originally the Collector had assessed the amount of compensation at the rate of Rs. 16 lacs per acre. As per pleadings made by the respondent-State in the written statement, this calculation was made by the Collector after taking into account 34 sale transactions. However, vide award dated 6.1.1999 by which the rate of compensation was enhanced from Rs. 16 lacs per acre to Rs. 27 lacs per acre, not even a single sale transaction has been taken into account. Therefore, the award dated 6.1.1999 is arbitrary and without any basis.
(3.) It was further submitted by the learned Counsel for the petitioner that Section 11 of Act of 1894 lays down the procedure which was to be followed while assessing the rate of compensation. According to this provision, it is the Collector who is to assess the compensation for the land acquired but the respondents have violated the provisions of this Section by adopting another method of calculating the amount of compensation by relying upon the findings recorded by the District Land Price Fixation Committee (in short DLPF Committee) which is clearly in contravention of the provisions of Section 11 of Act of 1894.;