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State of Haryana & Ors. v. Parveen Kumar Etc.

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 524Decided 16 May 2018
Civil Appeal Nos. 5545-5574 of 2018
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar

Background

The State of Haryana challenged the compensation amount fixed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana for land acquired from a large group of landowners (the appeals here covered several First Appeals from 2014-2015 decided together by the High Court). A set of closely connected appeals arising from the very same impugned High Court judgment had already been decided by the Supreme Court a few months earlier, on 13 September 2017, fixing a specific per-acre compensation rate.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that since these appeals arose out of the same common High Court judgment already dealt with in the earlier 13 September 2017 ruling, they should be disposed of on the same terms. In that earlier judgment, the Court had recalculated compensation using a comparable-sale method, applying a 12-13% flat annual increase over a base price, and after further deductions for development costs, had reduced the High Court's figure of Rs. 1,46,09,000 per acre down to Rs. 95 lakhs per acre (with statutory benefits). The Court simply applied this same determined rate to the present batch of appeals, granting leave and disposing of them in those terms.

Lesson Learnt

When multiple landowners' compensation claims arise from one common High Court judgment, the Supreme Court decides them together using one settled valuation method, so parties should expect their compensation to follow the rate fixed in the lead/connected judgment rather than get a separately negotiated figure.

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

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