Prior to the aforesaid acquisition, huge land was earlier acquired by the appellants by notification dated 13.02.1995. Several land acquisition references under Section 18 of the Act were filed by land owners for compensation of land acquired under the notification dated 13.02.1995. Against the judgment passed by the reference court, the land owners as well as the appellant Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. filed large number of first appeals before this court, leading first appeal being First Appeal No.96 of 2005 (Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. vs. Jagpal Singh and others), which were disposed of by a Division Bench and the matter was remanded to the reference court. Against the Division Bench judgment remanding the matter, the claimants filed Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) No. 5429-5455 of 2017), which were allowed by Hon'ble Supreme Court on 01.05.2017 and High Court was requested to decide the appeals and crossobjections on merit instead of remanding it. Pursuant to the aforesaid order of Hon'ble Supreme Court, 208 first appeals, the leading first appeal being First Appeal No.96 of 2005, were decided by the Division Bench by a common judgment dated 12.12.2018. The operative portion of the aforesaid judgment dated 12.12.2018 (Paras 135, 136 and 137), is reproduced below:
