Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC:137859 Court No. - 35 Case :- FIRST APPEAL No. - 115 of 1989 Appellant :- Dr. Daya Kishan Hajra And Another Respondent :- The Collector Agra Counsel for Appellant :- A.K. Mukharjee,Madnesh Prasad Singh,Rishabh Agarwal,Tarun Agrawal Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C. Hon'ble Sandeep Jain,J. Heard learned counsel for the appellants and learned Standing Counsel for the State. The land owners have challenged the award of the reference court dated 23.09.1988 passed by the IInd Additional District Judge, Agra in Land Acquisition Case No.45 of 1982 by filing the instant first appeal under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, solely on the ground that since the award of the reference court was passed after the enactment of Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act, 1984 (Act No.68 of 1984), as such, the land owners were entitled to get solatium @ 30% but in spite of this express statutory provision, the land owners were denied the above solatium, and have only been granted solatium @ 15%, which is against the law laid down by the Apex Court and upheld by this Court. Learned counsel also submitted that the land owners are also entitled to get additional interest under Section 28 of the Act of 1894 @ 15% per annum, since the enhanced compensation will be paid after one year of the passing of the award. Learned counsel in support of the above submissions have relied on the case of K.S. Paripoornan vs. State of Kerala, (1995) 1 SCC 367, Panna Lal Ghosh and Others vs. Land Acquisition Collector and Others, (2004) 1 SCC 467, Lilawati Agarwal and others vs. State of Jharkhand, (2016) 6 SCC 566 and State of U.P. vs. Ram Lal and Others, (2013) SCC Online All 3890. Per-contra, learned Standing Counsel has submitted that the appellants are not entitled to get additional interest in terms of Section 28 of the Act, 1894, but he conceded that the appellants are entitled to get enhanced solatium @ 30%. I have heard the learned counsel for both the parties and perused the record. From the perusal of the impugned award passed by the reference court dated 23.09.1988, it appears that the land owners have only been granted solatium @ 15%. They have also been granted interest @ 9% w.e.f. 30.06.1978 i.e. the date of taking possession of the acquired land by the State but the reference court, has refused to award solatium @ 30%. From the perusal of the above case laws referred by the learned counsel for the appellants, it is apparent that after the enactment of Act No. 68 of 1984, which came into effect from 24.09.1984, in every land acquisition case, the land owners are entitled to get solatium at the enhanced rate of 30%. Since in this case the reference court award has been passed after the enactment of the above amending Act on 23.09.1988, as such, the reference court should have granted solatium at the enhanced rate of 30%. It is also apparent that under Section 28 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, the land owners are entitled to get enhanced interest on excess compensation @ 15% per annum, if that excess compensation is paid after the expiry of the period of one year from the date on which possession of land was taken. In the instant case, the possession of the land belonging to the land owners/appellant was taken by the State Government on 30.06.1978 and due to this, the reference court has awarded interest @ 9% per annum w.e.f. 30.06.1978, till the date of actual payment. In view of the above legal position, the reference court has committed error in granting solatium only @ 15% to the appellants. Accordingly, the instant first appeal deserves to be allowed and is allowed with cost throughout. The impugned award of the reference court dated 23.09.1988 is modified to the extent that the appellant-land owners are entitled to get enhanced solatium @ 30% and on the additional amount of solatium, they are also entitled to get interest @ 15% per annum w.e.f. 30.06.1978 till the date of actual payment under Section 28 of the Act. Office is directed to prepare the decree, accordingly. Order Date :- 13.8.2025 Mayank Digitally signed by :- MAYANK KUMAR SHARMA High Court of Judicature at Allahabad