Rameshwar Singh Malik, J. - (1.) This bunch of 30 Regular First Appeals, out of which 17 appeals bearing RFA Nos. 6989 to 7005 of 2014 filed by State of Haryana and 13 appeals bearing RFA Nos. 8879 to 8881, 9630 to 9636 of 2014, 2568, 2569, 3140 of 2015, filed by the landowners, is being decided vide this common order, as all these appeals arise out of the same acquisition and raise identical questions of law and facts. However, with the consent of learned counsel for the parties and for the facility of reference, facts are being culled out from RFA No. 6989 of 2014 (State of Haryana and another v. Sudarshan Kumar and others) .
(2.) Briefly put, facts necessary for disposal of this bunch of appeals are that State of Haryana sought to acquire land measuring 8.34 acres out of revenue estate No.33 Tosham, District Bhiwani, at public expenses for public purpose; namely for construction of Tosham Drain. Accordingly, notification dated 22.2.2010 was issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 ('the Act' for short), which was followed by notification dated 23.4.2010 under Section 6 of the Act. Land Acquisition Collector, vide his award No. 3-B dated 6.5.2011, assessed the market value of the acquired land at uniform rate of Rs. 12 lacs/- per acre.
(3.) Dissatisfied, the landowners filed their objections under Section 18 of the Act and as a consequence thereof, as many as 17 land references were forwarded, which were decided together by the learned reference court, vide its common impugned award dated 20.3.2014. Learned reference court assessed the market value of the acquired land at the uniform rate of Rs. 58,88,000/- per acre.;