Haryana State Vs Mohar Singh — Land Acquisition | Punjab & Haryana HC (2026)

Haryana State Vs Mohar Singh — Land Acquisition | Punjab & Haryana HC (2026)

What the court decided

AI extract

Outcome

None to the appellant-State: all seven Regular First Appeals (RFA-200-2001 to RFA-206-2001 (O&M)) dismissed and the Reference Court award dated 03.11.2000 fixing market value @ Rs.4,75,000/- per acre besides statutory benefits upheld in favour of the respondent(s)/landowners; pending miscellaneous application(s), if any, stand disposed of.

Issue for consideration

Whether the decision dated 03.11.2000 of the Reference Court enhancing market value of the acquired land to Rs.4,75,000/- per acre (over the LAC award of Rs.98,000/- Chahi and Rs.1,04,000/- Gair Mumkin per acre) should be set aside, as urged by the appellant-State, or upheld. +1 more

Court's answer

Finding no merits in the appeals filed by the appellant-State, the seven appeals are dismissed and the award dated 03.11.2000 passed by the learned Reference Court (market value Rs.4,75,000/- per acre besides statutory benefits) is upheld.

Ratio / Principle

No illegality or perversity could be found with the reasoning recorded by the learned Reference Court for having discarded sale instance Ex.R1 dated 17.08.1993.

Key takeaways

Ground for discarding Ex.R1: vide sale transaction Ex.R1 only ownership was got transferred, the land already being in possession of one lessee, Prithi Singh son of Chander Singh, and thus not free from encumbrances.ratio¶24
Ground for discarding Ex.R1: in the absence of the vendor or vendee being produced as witnesses before the learned Reference Court, the respondent(s)/landowner(s) had no opportunity to counter the sale price therein, so Ex.R1 could not be treated as reflecting the representative market price of the land.ratio¶24

Detailed headnote1 paragraphs

Land Acquisition (compensation/enhancement) — Punjab & Haryana HC, 30.01.2026 (Harkesh Manuja, J.): Common order dismissing seven Regular First Appeals (RFA-200-2001 to RFA-206-2001 (O&M)) by the State of Haryana against the decision dated 03.11.2000 of the Additional District Judge, Gurgaon-cum-Reference Court enhancing market value of acquired land in Village Mau, Tehsil Pataudi, District Gurgaon (acquired under Sections 4 and 6, Land Acquisition Act 1894, notifications dated 26.07.1994 and 21.07.1995, for road Mau–Malpura) from LAC rates of Rs.98,000/- (Chahi) and Rs.1,04,000/- (Gair Mumkin) per acre to Rs.4,75,000/- per acre besides statutory benefits. Held: Reference Court committed no illegality or perversity in discarding sale instance Ex.R1 dated 17.08.1993 (44K-3M sold for Rs.4.14 lakhs; base price Rs.75,017/- per acre) because (i) under it only ownership transferred, the land being already in possession of lessee Prithi Singh s/o Chander Singh and thus not free from encumbrances; (ii) vendor/vendee were not produced as witnesses, denying the landowners opportunity to counter the sale price, so Ex.R1 could not reflect representative market price; and (iii) even the LAC assessment exceeded Ex.R1's base price. Sale deed Ex.P1 dated 18.07.1992 (1K-4M, same revenue estate, sold for Rs.70,000/-; base price Rs.4,66,666/- per acre) was rightly relied upon for enhancement, its genuineness being unquestioned. Appeals dismissed; Reference Court award upheld; pending misc. applications disposed of.

RFA-200-2001 (O&M) & other connected cases [1]

114 (7 cases) IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH

RFA-200-2001 (O&M) Date of Decision: 30.01.2026

State of Haryana

…….Appellant

Versus

Mohar Singh and ors. ..….Respondents

CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE HARKESH MANUJA

Present: Mr. Abhinash Jain, DAG, H aryana.

Mr. Atul Yadav, Advocate Ms.Sunita Shekhawat, Ad v ocate for the respondent(s)/land o wners.

-.-

HARKESH MANUJA, J. (ORAL)

Vide this common orde r , a bunch of 7 Regular F irst Appeals, details of which are given i n the footnote of this judgm e nt, are being decided as all the appeals have arisen out of com m on acquisiti o n/Award involving common facts and question of law. F or the sake of brevity, facts are being ta k en from RFA No.200-2001 .

By way of filing the prese n t appeal(s) challenge has b e en laid to the decision dated 03.11. 2 000 passed by the lear n ed Addition a l District Judge, Gurgaon- c um-Reference Court (for s h ort ‘the Ref e rence Court’).

Briefly stating, some land, situated within the reve n ue

SANJAY GUPTA 2026.02.02 19:32 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document

RFA-200-2001 (O&M) & other connected cases [2]

estate o f Villla Mau, Tehsil Pataudi District Gurgaon was sought to be acquired by the Government of H a ryana vide notifications dated 26.07.1 9 94 (published on 09.08.199 4 ) and 21.07.1995 (published on 15.08.1 9 95), issued under Sections 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisi t ion Act, 189 4 , for short ‘the Act’ respectively, for public purpose i.e. “ for construction of road from Mau to Malpura in Gurgaon District”. T he Land Acquisition Collector (for s hort ‘the LAC’) vide aw a rd 06.03.1 9 97 assessed market value i n respect of the acquired land @ Rs.98,0 0 0/- per acre for Chahi and Rs.1,04,000/- per acre for G air Mumkin land, besides all other statut o ry benefits under the Act.

Dissatisfied with the af o resaid award, the appella n ts/ landown e rs filed reference petitions invoking Section 18 of the A ct, which c a me to be disposed of by th e learned Reference Court v ide decision dated 03.11.2000 while det e rmining the market value of the acquired land @ Rs.4,75,000 /- per acre besides all other statutory benefits under the Act.

Aggrieved of the Award p a ssed by the learned Refere n ce Court, the present appeals were preferred at the instance of appellan t -State 6. I have heard learned co u nsel for the parties and g o ne through t he paper-book. I do not fin d substance in the submissi o ns made on behalf appellant-State. 7. While referring to the sale instance ExR1 dated

SANJAY GUPTA 2026.02.02 19:32 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document

RFA-200-2001 (O&M) & other connected cases [3]

17.08.1 9 93, vide which 44K-3M of la n d was sold for a sum of Rs.4.14 lakhs wi t h base price of Rs.75,017/- p er acre, learned counsel for the appellan t -State submitted that the r e spondent(s)/landowner(s) w e re already a warded market value @ Rs. 9 8,000/- per acre for Chahi l a nd and Rs. 1 .04 lakhs per acre for gair mumkin land by the LAC a nd therefor e , no further enhancemen t as ordered by the lear n ed Referen c e Court was liable to b e granted in their favour a nd therefor e , the present appeals were l i able to be allowed while set t ing aside th e impugned award passed by the learned Reference Court. 8. Having gone through the records, in the humble opinion of this C ourt, the learned Reference Court committed no illegalit y or perversity while ignoring the sale inst a nce Ex.R1. Firstly, it has come on recor d that vide sale transaction E x.R1 only the ownership of the land wa s got transferred as the same was already in possessio n of one less e e, namely, Prithi Singh, son of Chander Singh and thus w as not free f rom encumbrances. Further , even the assessment made by the LA C vide its award dated 0 6.03.1997 in favour of t he respond e nt(s)/landowner(s) was much more than the base price per acre der i ved from the sale instance Ex.R1, thus in the absence of the vendor o r vendee, been produced as witnesses before the lear n ed Referen c e Court so as to afford an o pportunity to the respondent ( s)/ landown e r(s) to counter them about the sale price therein, the sale instance Ex.R1 could not have be e n treated to be reflecting the

SANJAY GUPTA 2026.02.02 19:32 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document

RFA-200-2001 (O&M) & other connected cases [4]

represe n tative market price of the land. As such no illegality or perversity could be found with the re a soning recorded by the lear n ed Referen c e Court for having discarded Ex.R1 dated 17.08.1993. 9. On the other hand, the la n d parcel forming part of the s ale deed Ex . P1 dated 18.07.1992 vide which 1K-4M of land forming p art of the s a me revenue estate of Villag e Mau was sold for Rs.70,0 0 0/with bas e price of Rs.4,66,666/- per acre was rightly relied upon by the lear n ed Reference Court for t h e purpose of re-assessm e nt/ enhancement of market value in favour of the respondent(s)/ landown e r(s), there being no doubt r aised about its genuineness by the app e llant.

In view of the aforesaid d iscussion, finding no merit s in the app e als filed by the appellan t -State, the same are her e by dismiss e d while upholding the award d ated 03.11.2000 passed by t he learned R eference Court.

Pending misc. applicati o n(s), if any, shall also st a nd dispose d of.

30.01.2026 (HARKESH MANUJA) sanjay JUDGE

Whether speaking/reason e d? Yes/No Whether Reportable? Yes/No

S r. No.	Case No.
1 .	RFA-201-2001 (O &M)
2 .	RFA-202-2001 (O &M)
3 .	RFA-203-2001 (O &M)

SANJAY GUPTA 2026.02.02 19:32 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document

RFA-200-2001 (O&M) & other connected cases [5]

4 .	RFA-204-2001 (O &M)
5 .	RFA-205-2001 (O &M)
6 .	RFA-206-2001 (O &M)

30.01.2026 (HARKESH MANUJA) sanjay JUDGE

SANJAY GUPTA 2026.02.02 19:32 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document