Case: State of W.B Vs. Shyamapada Etc

2. The respondents had claimed compensation at the rate of Rupees 800 per acre for land on which sabai grass was grown and Rs. 200 per acre for the rest of the danga land. The Land Acquisition Collector had awarded compensation at the rate of Rs. 50 per acre for all the danga lands including the portion on which sabai grass was grown. He awarded compensation at the rate of Rs. 26/4/per acre for the value of sabai grass grown on 100 acres of land. The learned District Judge upheld the order of the Land Acquisition Collector as regards the compensation awarded in respect of all the danga lands but in respect of the standing crop of sabai grass he held that 150 acres had been grown with sabai grass, that 18 maunds of sabai grass could be grown in an acre, that the value of sabai grass was Rs. 3/The learned Judges of the High Court fixed the compensation in respect of the danga lands on which sabai grass was grown at Rs. 800 an acre, after holding, as did the District Judge, that 150 acres land was cultivated with sabai grass. They held that the owners of the land were entitled to compensation in respect of those lands at a multiple of 20 times the annual income. For the rest of the danga lands the compensation was raised to Rs. 100/an acre. The appeals are confined only to these two questions.

Court's reasoning:
We may refer to the evidence of claimants witness No. 3 who gives the value of sabai grass at Rs. 4/8/as also the evidence of one of the claimants that the price of sabai grass varied from Rs. 5/to Rs. 5/8/in l951. The learned Judges of the High Court have accepted the price of one maund of sabai grass at Rs. 4/and considering the accounts produced by the land owners which showed that they had sold sabai grass at Rs. 4/8/to Rs. 5/8/per maund, Rs. 4/per maund taken by the learned Judges of the High Court as the basis for determining the compensation cannot be said to err on the liberal side. So also the yield of 20 maunds an acre in view of the evidence of P.W.6 as well as the extracts from "The Wealth of India" already referred to. We see no reason for not accepting the learned District Judges conclusion that 150 acres had been cultivated with sabai grass. We are therefore of opinion that there is no case for interference with the judgment of the learned Judges of the High Court as regards the value of the land cultivated with sabai grass.6. As regards the rest of the danga lands even the Kanoongo assessed the value of the danga land in Ex. A at Rs. 75 per acre.The learned judges have referred to certain other documents which showed the value of danga lands at Rs. 200/per acre to Rs. 490/per acre and even Rupees 600/per acre. In the face of these findings we are of opinion that the learned Judges of the High Court were quite justified in awarding compensation for the danga lands at the rate of Rs. l00/per acre. This conclusion is strengthed by a reference to Ex. A at page 60 of Part II of the High CourtBy deed No. 187 of 1951 sali and danga land had been sold at Rs. 703.2.0 per acre whereas by deed No. 405 of 1951 sali land had been sold at Rs, 800 per acre. There is another sale of sali land by deed No. 465 of 1951 at Rs.By deed No. 823 of 1951 sali and danga lands have been sold at RupeesThough we do not know the relative proportion of danga and sali lands in these documents, they give a rough idea of the value of sali lands. We refer to these documents only to lend assurance to our conclusion that the learned Judges of the High Court were right in regard to the value of the danga land.