1 FA 2666/2011 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY APPELLATE SIDE, BENCH AT AURANGABAD FIRST APPEAL NO.2666/2011 WITH FIRST APPEAL NO.2667 /2011 WITH FIRST APPEAL NO.2668/2011 WITH FIRST APPEAL NO. 2669/2011 Smt. V.A. Shinde, A.G.P. for the appellants. Mr. V.G. Sakolkar, Advocate for respondent No.1. CORAM : SMT. MRIDULA BHATKAR, J. DATED : 03rd October, 2011. ORAL ORDER: 1. Heard. 2. In these four appeals, order passed by reference Court dated 21/01/2008 is challenged. The lands acquired are situated at village Her Taluka Udgir District Latur. The notification under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act was taken out on 05/02/2001 and notification under section 6 of the said Act was published on 30/05/2002 by the acquiring body. Special Land Acquisition Officer while acquiring lands, fixed the rate of the compensation at Rs.1400/- per R by categorizing the lands in two classes. He awarded compensation @ Rs.1600/- per R for superior lands and @ Rs.1493/- Per R for the other lands. The agriculturists accepted the amount of compensation under protest and thereafter, the references were preferred by the claimants under section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, thereby demanding enhancement of the acquired lands. The claimants claimed enhancement @ Rs.5,000/- per R. At the time of deciding the reference of the group of these four acquisition matters, reference Court enhanced the compensation up to Rs.4,000/- per R, for the entire lands. Being aggrieved by the order, these appeals are filed. 2 FA 2666/2011 The appeals are for the admission. 3. Learned counsel for the respondents pointed out that the reference Court has relied on the sale instance produced by the claimants, of the adjacent land. Perused the relevant para in the judgment. In para 14 of the judgment, the reference Court has discussed the sale instance of the land of Gangadhar Mallikarjun Swami which is marked Exhibit 14. 33 R land was purchased @ Rs. 4,242/- per R on 15/02/2000. Village Tondar is adjacent to village Her and therefore, reference Court has rightly accepted the said sale instance as comparable and on the basis of the same, the amount of compensation which is fixed at Rs.4,000/- per R is found very reasonable and appropriate. 4. Learned A.G.P. while arguing the matters at the admission stage, submitted that the sale instance which is relied on by the reference Court is of small piece of land i.e. 33 R and therefore, reference Court ought not to have relied on it. However, the chart provided by the reference Court at the end of the judgment discloses that the acquired area of the lands, in all four instances, is ranging from 36 Rs to 150 Rs. Therefore, the sale instance which is used for comparison is a correct sale instance. The reference Court has observed that no evidence is tendered by the respondents to show that the market price of the land acquired was 1493/- or less than Rs. 4,000/-. In the result, there is no merit in these appeals. Hence, the appeals are dismissed summarily. The applications for stay are also disposed of. [SMT. MRIDULA BHATKAR, J.] ts k/2011/Oct.2011/fa2666.11 3 FA 2666/2011