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Ram Kishan (Since Deceased) Through His LRs v. State of Haryana

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 441Decided 3 Apr 2025
Civil Appeal Nos. 4772-4773 of 2025 (with 25 connected appeals) (arising out of SLP (C) Nos. 5544-5545 of 2023 and others)
Justice B.R. Gavai · Justice K.V. Viswanathan

Background

This was a batch of 27 appeals by landowners whose land in Dharuhera village, Haryana, was acquired in 2008 for an institutional sector development. A Reference Court had fixed compensation at about Rs. 55.71 lakh per acre by using a "reverse deduction" method based on a higher award for the adjoining village of Malpura (later itself enhanced by the Supreme Court to about Rs. 1.49 crore per acre in separate cases). The Punjab and Haryana High Court upheld the same Rs. 55.71 lakh figure, but for different reasons, rejecting reliance on the Malpura award and instead relying on one particular older sale deed. The landowners appealed, seeking parity with the higher Malpura compensation given the proximity and similar development purpose of the two villages.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court was wrong to reject the Malpura award as a comparable base value, since the villages were adjoining, both acquisitions served allied Dharuhera-sector development purposes, and the Reference Court had rightly relied on it with an appropriate "de-escalation" adjustment for the time gap between the two acquisitions. Applying established principles on using sale exemplars and prior awards from adjoining villages (and weighing the appellants' own sale deed evidence showing comparable high per-acre values), the Court fixed the compensation at Rs. 1,18,37,668 per acre, using the Malpura-based figure as the base, adjusting for time gap (de-escalation) and for the fact that the Malpura land had benefited from an additional land-use conversion. The eleven other appeals in the batch (concerning a different, related acquisition) were held to be directly governed by the Court's own earlier Malpura/Kapriwas judgments.

Lesson Learnt

When fixing "fair" compensation for acquired land, courts can and should look at sale prices and compensation awards from nearby, similarly-situated villages acquired around the same time for similar purposes: a landowner is not limited to comparable sales from within his own village, especially where nearby land has been valued much higher for a comparable public purpose.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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