HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE A. GOPAL REDDY AND HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO A.S.No.834 of 2002 AND CROSS-OBJ.(Sr).No.63554 of 2002 Dated: 10-06-2010 Between: The Special Deputy Collector, L.A.Unit, S.C.Railway, New B.G.Line, Karimnagar. Appellant AND Gouravelli Venkateshwar Rao & Others. Respondents. This Court made the following: HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE A. GOPAL REDDY AND HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE RAJA ELANGO A.S.No.834 of 2002 AND CROSS-OBJ.(Sr).No.63554 of 2002 COMMON JUDGMENT: (Per Hon’ble Sri Justice A.Gopal Reddy) This appeal by the Land Acquisition Officer under Section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short ‘the Act’) is directed against the orders of the Senior Civil Judge, Peddapalli, dated 29.03.2001 made in O.P.No.97 of 1997. On receipt of notice in the appeal, some of the respondents- claimants filed Cross-Objections (Sr.).No.63554 of 2002 seeking further enhancement of the compensation of the acquired land at Rs.1.00 lakh as against Rs.50,000/- per acre fixed by the reference Court. Hence, both the appeal and cross-objections are heard together and being disposed of by this common judgment. Upon requisition made by the second appellant for acquiring the lands for formation of broad-guage railway line on 18.7.1994, the land of the claimants-respondents herein to an extent of Ac.45.02 guntas situated in various survey numbers of Rebbaldavapalli Village of Sulthanabad Mandal was acquired by first appellant by issuing draft notification under Section 4(1) of the Act on 8.8.1995. The Land Acquisition Officer after conducting enquiry, passed an award on 15.7.1996 fixing the market value of the acquired land at Rs.10,530/- per acre. The claimants having not satisfied with the fixation of the market value, sought for reference to the Civil Court for due determination of the market value. On reference being made, the claimants appeared and filed claim statements before the reference Court claiming compensation at Rs.1.00 lakh per acre stating that the acquired land is adjacent to Rajiv Rahadhari highway, located at a distance of 3 k.ms. from Peddapally Mandal Headquarters; that the acquired land has potential market value on account of its fertility, location and proximity to both Peddapally and Sulthanabad headquarters; that out of the acquired lands, some are double crop wet lands whose value is more than Rs.1.50 lakhs but the L.A.O. granted compensation uniformly. To prove the market value, on behalf of the claimants, P.Ws.1 to 3 were examined and Exs.A.1 and A.2 were marked. On behalf of the referring Officer, R.W.1 was examined and the award copy was marked as Ex.B.1. On consideration of the evidence available on record, the reference Court basing on Ex.A.2 sale deed, dated 30.6.1993, wherein, one acre of land was sold for a consideration of Rs.50,000/-, fixed the market value of the acquired land at Rs.50,000/- per acre. Aggrieved by the same, the present appeal is filed by the Land Acquisition Officer. Seeking further enhancement of compensation in respect of Ac.30.07 guntas, some of the claimants filed the cross- objections. Learned counsel for the claimants-cross-objectors contended that P.W.2-vendor executed Ex.A.2 sale deed and though the sale price was mentioned at Rs.50,000/-, actually he received the sale consideration of Rs.1.00 lakh but to avoid stamp duty, it was mentioned as Rs.50,000/-. According to the counsel, the said evidence was also supported by the evidence of P.W.3, Village Assistant Officer, who stated that the acquired lands are double crop wet lands and to that effect he also issued Ex.A.1 certificate substantiating that the collection of the cist classifying the land as double crop wet land. Therefore, it is contended that even if 10% escalation per annum is added to the market value reflected under Ex.A.2, the market value of the acquired land comes to Rs.60,000/- per acre and, therefore, the claimants are entitled to suitable enhancement of compensation. On the other hand, the learned Special Government Pleader representing the appellants contended that except Ex.A.2 sale deed, there is no other evidence and that the evidence adduced by the parties also shows that there is no sale deed till the date of acquisition, which itself shows that there was no demand for the lands and therefore, when vast extent of land i.e. Ac.40.00 is acquired, some suitable deduction should be made to the consideration under Ex.A.2, wherein only one acre of land alone was sold. P.W.1, who is claimant No.3 deposed that the acquired lands are recorded as dry land in revenue records, but they are doing irrigation with Pochampad S.R.S.P. Canal water for the last 15 years, and that they used to raise two crops in an year, and that the Government is collecting the cist treating the lands as wet lands, which is also evident from the certificate issued under Ex.A.1. He deposed that they used to get net income of Rs.20,000/- per acre per annum, and that they used to raise paddy as first and second crops and after the second crop is harvested, they used to raise vegetables in the acquired land, and that after deducting the expenses, the used to get net income of Rs.20,000/- per acre per annum. The acquired lands are surrounded by three villages viz., Chinnakakalavala, Chinna Bonkur and Suglampalli. There was heavy demand for agricultural land. P.W.2-P.Murali Manohar Rao sold one acre of land for Rs.50,000/- under Ex.A.2 sale deed, dated 30.6.1993 to one Kalvala Ravinder Reddy, but the purchaser put less value in the sale deed to save stamp duty and registration charges and that actually the land under Ex.A.2 was sold for Rs.1.50 lakhs. The nature, fertility and potentiality of the acquired land is similar in nature and potentiality of the land covered by Ex.A.2. P.W.2 deposed that he executed the sale deed under Ex.A.2 mentioning the sale consideration as Rs.50,000/-, but actually he received the consideration of Rs.1.00 lakh. The said evidence is contrary to the evidence of P.W.1, who stated that the actual consideration under Ex.A.2 is Rs.1.50 lakhs. P.W.3 is the Village Assistant Officer, who issued Ex.A.1 certificate evidencing the collection of revenue treating the acquired lands as wet lands. It is now fairly well-settled that comparable sale method of value of land has to be preferred to the capitalization of net income when the sale statistics are available. The claimants themselves filed the sale deed-Ex.A.2, wherein an extent of one acre of land in Sy.No.56 was sold for Rs.50,000/- per acre on 30.6.1993, and whereas, the requisition for acquiring the land was made one year after the said date i.e. 18.7.1994. Therefore, the claimants cannot be imputed with the knowledge of proposed acquisition to contend that the sale deed under Ex.A.2 was executed to inflate the market value. No such suggestion was also put to P.W.2 by the Land Acquisition officer that the sale transaction under Ex.A.2 was brought into existence to claim higher compensation. Since the land covered by Ex.A.2 is in Sy.No.56, which is part of acquired land, the same can be taken as comparable sale for fixation of the market value. Further one acre of land is not a small extent to have necessary deductions, as claimed by the learned Special Government Pleader. Therefore, no deductions as such can be given. Section 92 of the Indian Evidence Act bars leading oral evidence between the parties to the instrument for the purpose of contradicting, varying, adding to, or subtracting from the terms of the sale deed executed. In that view of the matter, we have no hesitation in rejecting the contention of the learned counsel for the claimants-cross objectors that the land under Ex.A.2 was actually sold at Rs.1.00 lakh, but the same was mentioned as Rs.50,000/- to save stamp duty. Further no other sale deed or evidence has been produced by the claimants to show the steep rise in prices between 26 months i.e. from the date of sale deed under Ex.A.2 till the date of issuance of notification under Section 4(1) of the Act. It is now fairly well settled that the escalation of prices must be clearly established by the person who pleads escalation (see Land Acquisition Officer v. B.Vijender Reddy [2001 (10) SCC 669]). In the absence of any evidence adduced by the claimants about the escalation of prices from the date of execution of sale deed under Ex.A.2 and in view of their admission that there are no sale transactions recorded between the date of sale deed under Ex.A.2 and the date of notification under Section 4(1) of the Act, we are not inclined to award any escalation for the market value as fixed by the reference Court. Accordingly, the appeal as well as the cross-objections are dismissed. No order as to costs. ________________ A. GOPAL REDDY, J. __________________ JUNE 10, 2010 RAJA ELANGO, J. Tsr.