Vithal Rao And Anr Etc vs The Special Land Acquisition Officer

2) We herein set out the facts, in brief, to appreciate the issues involved in these appeals.

4) By awards dated 22.07.2003, the Special Land Acquisition Officer determined the market value of the acquired lands at the rate of Rs.96,164/- per acre. 2

5) Being aggrieved by the awards made by the Land Acquisition Officer, the appellants (land owners) sought reference to the Senior Civil Judge, Mudhol under Section 18(1) of the Act and claimed compensation at the rate of Rs.300/- to Rs.350/- per sq. ft. for the acquired lands inter alia on the ground of building potentiality and comparable sale deeds of the several plots in the vicinity of the acquired lands. Their applications were registered as LAC Nos. 107, 106, 108 and 109 of 2004. The Reference Court clubbed them together and recorded common evidence in LAC No. 107/2004.

6) By common judgment and Award dated 24.08.2012, the Reference Court, by relying upon its earlier judgment dated 18.12.2009 passed in LAC No. 1659/2000 wherein the market value was determined at the rate of Rs.5,00,000/- per acre, fixed the market value of the acquired lands of the appellants at the rate of Rs.5,00,000/- per acre and awarded the compensation of Rs.6,75,000/- per acre inclusive of Rs.1,75,000/- per acre towards escalation price at the rate of 5% per annum from 21.08.1996, the date on which the Notification under Section 4(1) was issued in LAC No. 1659 of 2000 till 25.01.2003, the date on which the Notification under 3 Section 4(1) was issued in the cases at hand.

8) By impugned judgment dated 07.07.2014, the High Court allowed the appeals in part and while setting aside the award of the reference Court and disagreeing with its reasoning re-determined the compensation at Rs.13,93,920/- per acre as against Rs.6,75,000/- per acre awarded by the Reference Court with all statutory benefits as envisaged under Section 23 of the Act.

9) The High Court, inter alia, held by relying on the price (Rs. 64/- per sq. ft.) value of one exemplar sale deed (Ex.P-61) out of 11 sale deeds filed by the appellants and deducting 50% towards development charges from its price determined the market value at Rs.13,93,920/- per acre (Rs. 32/- per sq. ft.).

10) Against the said judgment, the appellants have filed these appeals before this Court seeking further enhancement in the compensation awarded by the High Court.

(17) These are general guidelines to be applied with understanding informed with common sense.”

32) The average value of the land in this way is worked out to Rs.99/- per sq. ft. and after deducting 40% towards development charges, we get a rate of Rs.60/- per sq. ft. (rounded off).

35) As held supra, firstly, all the sale deeds relate to very small piece of land; secondly, except two parcels of land sold for Rs.100/- and Rs.218/-, remaining plots were sold in the range of Rs.55/- to Rs.85/- and lastly, the appellants did not file any sale deed in relation to large chunk of land to prove the price in acres. For these reasons, in our view, it is not safe to rely on one or two isolated sale deeds of high value of very small plots. We have, therefore, preferred to work out the average of these sale deeds for determining the market value of the acquired land.

36) In the light of foregoing discussion, the appeals succeed 15 and are accordingly allowed in part. The impugned order is modified to the extent that the appellants are held entitled to claim compensation for the acquired land at the rate of Rs.60/- per sq ft. As a consequence, the appellants are held entitled to claim all statutory compensation accordingly.

37) Let the compensation now awarded by this Court by enhanced rate be re-worked and after making proper calculation and verification of the land, the same be paid to the appellants (respective land owners) within 3 months from the date of this order.

July 07, 2017 16