:1: pdp IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION FIRST APPEAL NO. 735 OF 1996 The Special Land Aquisition Officer, B & C Project Sindhudurg at Kudal ..Appellant Vs. Shri Vishwanath Ramchandra Rege age about 59 years. Occ:Agriculture Resident of Aronda, Taluka - Sawantwadi, Dist. Sindhudurg. ..Respondent Ms. S.P. Manchekar, AGP for appellant. Mr. P.J. Pawar for respondent. CORAM: B.H. MARLAPALLE & D.G. KARNIK,JJ. CORAM: B.H. MARLAPALLE & D.G. KARNIK,JJ. CORAM: B.H. MARLAPALLE & D.G. KARNIK,JJ. Date : March 16, 2009. Date : March 16, 2009. Date : March 16, 2009. ORAL JUDGMENT. (Per B.H. Marlapalle,J.): ORAL JUDGMENT. (Per B.H. Marlapalle,J.): ORAL JUDGMENT. (Per B.H. Marlapalle,J.): 1. This appeal filed under Section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short the Act) arises from the award passed in L.A.R. No. 13 of 1991 by the learned Joint Civil Judge, Senior Division, Ratnagiri at Sawantwadi. By the said award, the Reference Court has fixed the market value at Rs.1000/- per Are for the land acquired from the ownership of the :2: respondent-claimant. Land admeasuring 17.5 Are from Survey No. 146 Hissa No.1 of village Aronda, Taluka Sawantwadi came to be acquired by the Government of Maharashtra for Aronda Jetty approach road. The Notification under Section 4 of the Act was published on 6/2/1988 and the declaration under Section 6 of the Act was published on 18/2/1989. The Land Acquisition Officer passed his award on 31/12/1990 but the possession of the land was taken over on 29/3/1988 itself. The LAO granted compensation at the rate of Rs.150/- per Are for Varkas land and Rs.2/- per Are for Potkharaba land. The land owner, therefore, submitted an application under Section 18 of the Act to the Collector for reference as he was not happy with the compensation awarded by the LAO. The said application was referred to the court and came to be registered as L.A.R. No. 13 of 1991, which has been allowed by the impugned award. The respondent had stepped in the witness box in support of the higher claim and he also examined one more witness i.e. Shri Dattatray Naik (PW 2), whereas on behalf of the State none was examined. The claimant filed his statement of claim at Exh.11, whereas the State filed its :3: Written Statement-cum-say at Exh.25 before the Reference Court. The land owner had claimed compensation at the rate of Rs.2500/- per Are. 2. It is clear from the depositions of the claimant that no sale instances he had relied upon and he had in his depositions stated that Aronda village is a town and the land under acquisition is a bagayat land. In the neighbourhood, there were two schools, one high school, post and telegraph office. The land under acquisition was adjacent to the Terekhol Creek by North side. In the year 1987-88 the market value of the disputed land was Rs.2500/- per Are and, therefore, he had claimed at the said rate. In his cross-examination he admitted that village Aronda is in Sawantwadi Taluka and there is no Tahsil Office at Aronda and is located about 25 k.m. away from Sawantwadi with a population of about 5000. The second witness Shri Dattatray Naik was examined in support of the claim for the constructed structure/wall. :4: 3. The Reference Court, in the absence of any sale instances or any other material in support of the claim of Rs.2500/- per Are made by the claimant, referred to the award passed by the LAO and brought on record as Exh.29. In the said award the LAO had considered in all nine sale instances and the market rate varied from Rs.30/- to Rs.680/- per Are. The court noted that the market value in the year 1987 of the nearby land was Rs.600/- per Are and, therefore it proceeded to fix the market value at Rs.1000/- per Are in the instant case. We are not impressed by this reasoning. Even if we hold in favour of the land owner the LAO considered sale instances at Sr.Nos.8 and 9 in his award and in respect of the sale instance of 26/6/1987 the price paid was Rs.640/- per Are whereas the sale instance of 23/11/1987 the market rate was fixed at Rs.658/- per Are. There is one sale instance of 25/5/1984 at Rs.680/- per Are as the market rate. Even if we average the market rate of these sale instances it would come to about Rs.660/- per Are. The possession of the land was taken in March, 1988 in the instant case and, therefore, even if we give an increase of 5%, the market rate would :5: not exceed Rs.700/- per Are by following the reasoning set out by the Reference Court and not Rs.1000/- per Are. To this extent the impugned award requires to be modified. 4. Hence, the appeal succeeds partly. The market value for the land admeasuring 17.5 Ares at the relevant time is fixed at Rs.700/- per Are in place of Rs.1000/- per Are and the impugned award is hereby modified accordingly. In addition the respondent shall be entitled to all the statutory benefits. 5. The Registry to draw decree as per the modified award. (D.G. Karnik,J.) (D.G. Karnik,J.) (D.G. Karnik,J.) (B.H. Marlapalle,J.) (B.H. Marlapalle,J.) (B.H. Marlapalle,J.)