fa2581.09 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY, BENCH AT AURANGABAD FIRST APPEAL NO. 2581 OF 2009 Godawari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation, Aurangabad VERSUS The State of Maharashtra & others WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2580 OF 2009 Godawari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation, Aurangabad VERSUS The State of Maharashtra & others WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2583 OF 2009 Godawari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation, Aurangabad VERSUS The State of Maharashtra & another fa2581.09 2 WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2582 OF 2009 Godawari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation, Aurangabad VERSUS The State of Maharashtra & another WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2507 OF 2009 Godawari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation, Aurangabad VERSUS The State of Maharashtra & another WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2506 OF 2009 Godawari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation, Aurangabad VERSUS The State of Maharashtra & another fa2581.09 3 WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2505 OF 2009 Godawari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation, Aurangabad VERSUS The State of Maharashtra & another WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2504 OF 2009 Godawari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation, Aurangabad VERSUS The State of Maharashtra & another WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2325 OF 2009 Godawari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation, Aurangabad VERSUS The State of Maharashtra & others fa2581.09 4 WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2324 OF 2009 Godawari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation, Aurangabad VERSUS The State of Maharashtra & others WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2795 OF 2010 The Executive Engineer Beed Minor Irrigation Division, Head Quarters at Ambajogai Dist. Beed VERSUS Chandrabhan s/o Narayan Durgude & others WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2791 OF 2010 The Executive Engineer Beed Minor Irrigation Division, Head Quarters at Ambajogai Dist. Beed VERSUS Panchaphulabai w/o Pandurang Hulgude & another fa2581.09 5 WITH FIRST APPEAL ST. NO. 7293 OF 2010 The Executive Engineer Beed Minor Irrigation Division, Head Quarters at Ambajogai Dist. Beed VERSUS Balu s/o Dnyanoba Durgude & others WITH FIRST APPEAL ST. NO. 7366 OF 2010 The Executive Engineer Beed Minor Irrigation Division, Head Quarters at Ambajogai Dist. Beed VERSUS Bhimrao s/o Budha Hulgude & another. WITH FIRST APPEAL ST. NO. 7360 OF 2010 The Executive Engineer Beed Minor Irrigation Division, Head Quarters at Ambajogai Dist. Beed fa2581.09 6 VERSUS Rukhminibai w/o Dnyanoba Durgude & another WITH FIRST APPEAL ST. NO. 7357 OF 2010 The Executive Engineer Beed Minor Irrigation Division, Head Quarters at Ambajogai Dist. Beed VERSUS Dhondiram s/o Manikrao Dyague & another WITH FIRST APPEAL ST. NO. 7298 OF 2010 The Executive Engineer Beed Minor Irrigation Division, Head Quarters at Ambajogai Dist. Beed VERSUS Ramling s/o Ambadas Jadhav & others fa2581.09 7 WITH FIRST APPEAL ST. NO. 7354 OF 2010 The Executive Engineer Beed Minor Irrigation Division, Head Quarters at Ambajogai Dist. Beed VERSUS Adinath s/o Dashrath Gore & another Mr. S.S. Thombre, advocate for the appellant. Mr. K.S. Patil, AGP for the State. Mr. Vijay Khakne and Mr. A.B. Kale, advocates for respondents / claimants. ===== CORAM : R.M. BORDE, J. DATE : JULY 19, 2011. PER COURT : 1 Heard. 2 Admit. First Appeal Nos. 2580/2009, 2581/2009, 2582/2009, 2583/2009, 2504/2009, 2505/2009, 2506/2009, 2507/2009, 2325/2009 and 2324/2009 are already admitted by this court. 3 Group of matters which are admitted by this court earlier as well as the matters which are placed on today’s board for admission are taken up fa2581.09 8 together. 4 Acquiring body is raising exception to the judgment and award passed by the reference court in group of reference applications. Agricultural lands belonging to the claimants comprising of small pieces have been acquired for construction of storage tank at Lokarwadi. Notification under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act was issued on 8-6-1999 and after following the procedure prescribed under the Land Acquisition Act, award came to be passed on 18-1-2001. The Land Acquisition Officer offered compensation at the rate of Rs. 285/- per R in respect of dry crop lands whereas in respect of seasonally irrigated lands, Land Acquisition Officer prescribed value of the agricultural lands at Rs. 700/- per R. Claimants being dis-satisfied with the amount of compensation offered by the Land Acquisition Officer, tendered separate applications seeking reference of the matter to the civil court for determination of market value of the acquired lands. According to the claimants, fair market value of the acquired lands shall be at the rate of Rs.2,000/- per R. 5 In order to substantiate their claim, claimants have placed reliance on fa2581.09 9 the evidence in the form of comparable sale instances. Claimants have also led oral evidence of the witnesses to support their contention in respect of fair market value of the acquired lands. Reference court has taken into account the sale instance placed on record at exh. 19. Land covered by the sale instance is situate at village Hivra Pahadi which has been alienated in favour of one Sakhubai for consideration of Rs. 6,00,000/- on 1-9-1998. Land covered by the sale instance exh. 19 admeasuring 3 H and 48 R is stated to be seasonally irrigated land and the value of the land covered by the transaction comes at Rs.2028/- per R. Sale instance at exh. 19 is admittedly pre-notification sale and the agricultural land being situate in the same village and within the proximate distance of the acquired land, evidence in the form of sale instance is relevant for consideration for fixing the market value of the acquired lands. Considering the evidence in the form of sale instance reference court has prescribed price of the acquired lands at Rs. 700/- per R for dry crop lands and Rs. 1,050/- per R for seasonally irrigated lands. 6 I have gone through the reasons recorded by the reference court so also the copies of relevant record made available by learned counsel for the appellant while arguing the appeals. It is brought to my notice that in fa2581.09 10 certain matters area only to the extent of 10 or 11 R has been acquired thus entitling the claimants to receive amount below Rs. 10,000/-. Considering the fact that very small piece of agricultural lands have been acquired coupled with the fact that enhancement in the amount of compensation allowed by the reference court being marginal, respective claimants are held entitled to receive moderate sum. Taking into consideration all these relevant factors, I am of the opinion that no interference is called for in all the appeals. Appeals are devoid of substance hence stand dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs. 7 Pending civil application, if any, does not survive and stands disposed of. [ R.M. BORDE, J. ] dyb