1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION FIRST APPEAL NO.658 OF 1992 The State of Maharashtra .... Appellants (Through Special Land Acquisition Officer,Minor Irrigation, Nasik Vs. Ashok Gangaram Daund & Ors. .... Respondents Mrs. Geeta Mulekar, Government Pleader for Applicants. None for respondents. Coram : SMT. R.P. SONDURBALDOTA, J. Date : 26th November, 2008 P.C. 1. The State of Maharashtra being aggrieved by the judgment and Award passed by the learned Joint District Judge, Nasik in Land Reference No.37 of 1986 preferred the instant appeal. The respondents are the original claimants who are the owners of the agricultural lands bearing gat No.155, admeasuring 4 hectares and 33 Are of village Thangaon. The land admeasuring 66 Are out of gat No.155 was acquired by the appellants for construction of Teli Canal of the Minor Irrigation tank at Thangaon. Notification under Section 4 for the acquisition was published on 1st March,1984 and the Award passed granting compensation at the rate of Rs.22,000/- per hectare. Not being satisfied with the amount of compensation granted by the Land Acquisition Officer, the respondents filed 2 reference under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. In the reference, the respondents claimed enhanced compensation on two counts. Firstly that there was one well for the entire gat No.155 which fell on the portion of the land acquired by the Government. As a consequence, the balance land which remained with the respondents was without irrigation. This caused loss to them. They suffered further loss in spending for digging another well on the balance portion in their possession. Secondly that the amount of compensation awarded at the rate of Rs.22,000/- per hectare was too megre and hence unreasonable. According to the respondents, they are entitled the compensation for the land at the rate of Rs.75,000/- hectare. The learned Reference Judge rejected the first contention of the respondents holding that the respondents could not have claimed compensation for loss of well as well as for construction of new well on the land in their possession. He further held that there was no evidence whatsoever as regards existence of the new well on the land. As regards the second ground for enhancement, the learned Judge took into consideration several instances of sale in the surrounding area and found that the transaction of the sale evidenced by Shivaji (C.W.-2) for land admeasuring 10 Are for gat No.2075 of the same village under sale deed dated 4th May, 1978 for the consideration of 3 Rs.10,000/- was comparable to the land under acquisition. He discarded two other sale transactions relied upon by the claimants holding that there was no comparison between the lands sold under the said transaction and the land under acquisition. After taking into consideration, the sale in favour of CW-2 at the rate of Rs.1,00,000/- per hectare, the learned Reference Judge took note of the fact that the land purchased by CW-2 got facility to fetch river water to irrigate his land. He also noted that it was small in size. Therefore, he gave allowance of Rs.25,000/- per hectare for getting market value of the acquired land. With that allowance, he held that value of the acquired land was Rs.75,000/- per hectare at the time when it was acquired vide Notification under Section 4 of the Act dated 1st March,1984. At that rate, he calculated market value of land admeasuring 55 Are to be Rs.21,250/-. There was pot kharaba land of 11 Are which was also acquired. This land being non agricultural land, he held that the compensation, therefor should be granted at the rate of Rs.10,000/- per hectare. Perusal of the judgment shows that the leaned Judge while deciding the reference has been very fair and reasonable. He has correctly taken into consideration all the aspects of the matter to arrive at the market value of the land at the rate of Rs.75,000/- per hectare and granted 4 compensation. In my opinion, there is no need to interfere with this Order. Hence, the First Appeal is dismissed with costs. (SMT. R.P. SONDURBALDOTA,J)