Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Developemnt Corporation Limited & Ors. vs Rameshwar Dass (Dead) & Ors.

Court

Supreme Court of India

Date

8 April 2021

Case No.

Miscellaneous Application Nos. 926-930 of 2019

Result

Disposed

Bench

Uday Umesh Lalit, D.Y. Chandrachud

Citation

[2021] 4 S.C.R. 31 : 2021 INSC 238

Headnote

Land Acquisition Act, 1894: Land acquisition – *Wazir vs. State of Haryana’s case – Clarification of, sought by landowners from certain villages – In Wazir’s case compensation in respect of one set of village assessed at Rs. 39,54,666/- per acre and other set of village at Rs.29,77,333/- per acre – Thus, compensation in respect of lands from the concerned villages assessed at Rs.29,77,333/per acre – Filing of applications before this Court seeking clarification of Wazir’s case – Land owners submitting that the lands coming from all the villages were always considered by the Reference Court and the High Court without any inter se distinction between two sets of villages; that the decision in HSIDC vs. UDAL contemplated award of compensation at the minimum rate of Rs.37,40,000/- per acre; that after the decision of this Court in HSIDC vs UDAL, the only issue was to consider whether landholders were entitled to increased compensation and that there could not be any decrease in the rate of compensation; that in terms of the decision in HSIDC vs. UDAL, additional compensation at the rate of Rs.9,24,644/- per acre was received by the landholders, who have spent all the compensation money received and it would be impossible for them to pay the difference as directed in Wazir’s case; that the burden of additional compensation paid to the landholders in terms of the HSIDC v UDAL, was passed on by the authorities and recovered from the subsequent allottees of the land – HELD: It cannot be said that there could be no occasion to scale down the rate of compensation – Matters have to be considered on their own merits and in the process, if the facts on record justified, there could be fixation of compensation at a reduced rate for the lands from the concerned villages – As against their entitlement of Rs.29,77,333/- per acre as found in Wazir vs. State of Haryana, the landholders have received Rs.7,62,667/- per acre over and above their entitlement – Any adjustment in terms of the direction in Wazir’s case, would entail in recovery of money from the landholders – Thus, to relieve the landholders from the burden of returning the amounts over and above their entitlement, it is directed that the amount of compensation fixed at Rs.29,77,333/- per acre in respect of lands from the concerned villages as held in Wazir’s case remains unchanged – As the compensation at the rate of Rs.37,40,000/- per acre has been received by the landholders from the concerned villages, they need not return the amounts over and above what has been found due to them – Subsequent allotees of the lands would not be entitled to maintain any action for refund only on account of orders passed in these proceedings – Constitution of India – Art.

The Order of the Court was passed by UDAY UMESH LALIT, J. 1. Miscellaneous Application Nos.926-930 of 2019 and I.A. No.118262 of 2019 are preferred by landholders from villages Bas Khusla, Bas Haria and Dhana (‘the concerned villages’, for short) seeking clarification with regard to the Judgment1 passed by this Court in Civil Appeal Nos.264 – 270 of 2019 and other connected matters (Wazir vs. State of Haryana2). 2. The facts leading to the aforesaid Judgment have been set out in sufficient detail in the Judgment and for the purposes of these applications, the relevant facts are: A) In respe

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