1 F.A.st.8964.10 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD FIRST APPEAL STAMP NO. 8964 OF 2010 The State of Maharashtra and another. ...APPELLANTS. VERSUS 1. Babruwan Tukaram Khetre ...RESPONDENT ... Shri. K.S.Patil, A.G.P. for Appellant-State ... CORAM: R.M.BORDE, J. DATE : 27TH JULY, 2011. PER COURT : 1. This appeal is present by the appellant-State raising exception to the Judgment and Award passed by Ad-hoc Additional District Judge, Majalgaon, District Beed, on 14.11.2008, in Land Acquisition Reference NO. 596 of 2004. 2. Agricultural land belonging to claimants ad measuring to the extent of 00.52 R out of land Survey No. 122 of village Mothiwadi- Gangamasala, Tq. Majalgaon, District Beed came to be acquired by the State, for construction of Gangamasal Sub-canal distributoy D-16. 2 F.A.st.8964.10 Notification Under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act was issued on 11.03.1993 and after following procedure prescribed in the Land Acquisition Act, Land Acquisition Officer passed award on 11.08.1997. The Special Land Acquisition Officer offered compensation in respect of acquired lands at the rate of Rs. 223/- per R. 3. The claimant-respondent herein being dissatisfied with judgment and award tendered application seeking reference of the mater to the Civil Court for determination of the market value of the acquired land. The claimant claimed compensation at the rate of Rs. 1000/- per R. 4. In order to substantiate his contention, claimant placed reliance on the evidence in the form of comparable of sale instances and also examined vendee of the sale transaction to prove the sale deed. The sale instance placed on record is in respect of agricultural land situated in the same village; One Asaram Tulsiram Waghmare purchased One Acre land on 05.03.1999 from one Sukhdeo for consideration of Rs. 20,000/-. The value of the land under sale transaction comes to Rs. 500/- per R. The land purchased by the purchaser is at distance of half K.m. away from acquired land. The sale transaction pertains to the year 1990 i.e. three years prior to the issuance of the notification Under Section 4 of the Act, in the matter. 3 F.A.st.8964.10 Considering all these aspects the Reference Court reached the conclusion that market value of the acquired land shall be Rs. 487/- Per R. As possession of the property was taken over without following procedure prescribed under the Land Acquisition Act, prior to notification under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, the Reference Court, therefore, directed the State to pay statutory interest as prescribed under section 34 of the Act from the date of issuance of notification under section 4 of the Act, till the date of payment of amount, made payable under award passed by Land Acquisition Officer. 5. On perusal of the judgment and award passed by the Reference Court and also the copies of evidence made available by learned AGP appearing for the State while arguing the matter, I am of the view that Reference Court has adopted reasonable approach in the matter. The appeal presented by the State-Government is devoid of merit, hence stands dismissed. Sd/- [ R.M.BORDE, J. ] MTK 4 F.A.st.8964.10