Supreme Court directs enhanced land compensation methodology, fixes Rs.1.18 crore per acre for Dharuhera acquisitions

A Bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and K.V. Viswanathan heard a batch of civil appeals challenging awards and confirmations by the Punjab & Haryana High Court arising out of land acquisitions in and around Dharuhera. The appeals questioned the market value adopted by the Reference Court and the High Court for lands acquired under Section 4 and Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, and sought parity with awards in adjoining acquisitions that had been the subject of this Court’s recent decisions.

The Court partly allowed the appeals, set aside the High Court’s judgment dated 20.09.2022 in RFA No. 701/2022 and batch, and directed that the appellants be paid compensation at the rate of Rs.1,18,37,668 per acre together with statutory benefits under Sections 23(1-A), 23(2) and 28 of the LA Act after deducting amounts already paid. The Court held that certain matters in the batch were directly covered by this Court’s earlier judgments in BESCO Ltd. and M/s Habitat Estates Pvt. Ltd., and those landowners would be entitled to the same enhanced award (Rs.1,49,14,975 per acre) but not to interest for delayed filing. The Court explained its valuation methodology, applying de‑escalation and adjustments for change‑of‑land‑use charges. The Court, in its reasoning, observed: “Considering the factors mentioned above, we to start with take the value of the land fixed in Besco (supra), namely, Rs.1,49,14,975 per acre as the base value... Hence, even the test laid down in Manoj (supra) as set out above is satisfied in the present case and we are convinced that reliance can safely be placed on the award in Besco (supra) to arrive at a base value.” The judgment further noted that “the land had immense potentiality and that it could have been put to multifarious use” in assessing comparability and potentiality.

Background The disputes arose from multiple acquisitions for development of Dharuhera sectors by the State of Haryana. Sixteen matters challenged acquisition by a Section 4 notification dated 12.12.2008 (declared under Section 6 on 11.12.2009) affecting lands in Dharuhera, Garhi Alawalpur and Maheshwari; eleven other matters arose from a Section 4 notification dated 13.05.2010 (declared under Section 6 on 12.05.2011) affecting Malpura and Kapriwas. The Land Acquisition Collector originally fixed lower market values; reference courts accepted exemplars and, in some instances, applied reverse deduction from awards in adjoining acquisitions (notably LAC No.208 of 2016) to arrive at enhanced figures such as Rs.55,71,010 per acre. The High Court in some RFAs confirmed the Reference Court while in others (Malpura/Kapriwas) it enhanced compensation to Rs.1,21,33,320 per acre; this Court, in subsequent appeals (BESCO and Habitat), enhanced awards for Malpura/Kapriwas to Rs.1,49,14,975 per acre.

Before this Court, appellants urged parity with adjoining acquisitions, reliance on higher sale exemplars and application of established principles of escalation/de‑escalation and potentiality. The State contended that differing notification dates, geography and CLU status precluded mechanical application of subsequent awards. The Supreme Court analysed exemplar sale deeds, the sketch map (PW6/1), proximity of villages across NH‑8, and precedent on reliance on prior awards. It accepted the Besco award as base value, applied de‑escalation at 12% per annum for one year and an additional 6% for five months to reach an interim figure, and made a downward adjustment of Rs.5 lakh per acre to reflect CLU advantages in the Besco owners’ cases. The Court set aside the High Court order in the Dharuhera batch and directed payment of Rs.1,18,37,668 per acre with statutory benefits, but disallowed interest for delay in filing/refiling. Delay in filing/refiling of SLPs was condoned and leave was granted in the batch.

Case Details: Case No.: 2025 INSC 441 (Civil Appeal Nos. 4772-4798 of 2025 and related SLPs as listed) Case Title: Ram Kishan (since deceased) through his LRs etc. v. State of Haryana & Ors. Appearances: For the Petitioner(s): Mr. S. B. Upadhyay (Senior Counsel), Ms. Kavita Wadia (Senior Counsel), Mr. Gagan Gupta (Senior Counsel) For the Respondent(s): Mr. Alok Sangwan (Additional Advocate General)