Case: Jai Narain &amp; Others Vs. State of Rajasthan &amp; Others

For the purpose of land acquisition the notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 had been issued on 15th September, 1994 with respect to acquisition of 371 bigas and 10 biswas of land situated at village Roopwas, Dist Tonk, Rajasthan for the purpose of industrial development, the beneficiary was Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Planning Corporation Ltd. (for short "the RIICO"). The Land Acquisition Collector determined compensation, on the basis of belting method, at the rate of Rs. 1,15,000/per bigha for land abutting road, i.e. National Highway 12, whereas, Rs. 21,780/per bigha was granted for irrigated land, and Rs. 11,385/per bigha for unirrigated land.2. The Reference Court as well as the High Court, have affirmed the determination made by the Land Acquisition Collector and no enhancement has been made. Hence, these appeals have been preferred by the land owners.

Court's reasoning:
5. The Reference Court and the High Court have both considered the evidence that was mentioned in the award of the land acquisition collector; although, the settled proposition of law is, that such material cannot be said to be evidence for the purposes of Reference Court and, only the evidence that has been adduced before the Reference Court, was required to be taken into consideration. The report of theon the basis of which, the Land Acquisition Collector had determined the compensation has been relied upon. Unfortunately, the Reference Court as well as the High Court have both been influenced by the inadmissible material produced before the Collector, Land Acquisition, though, that was not a relevant piece of evidence for the purpose of determining compensation by the Reference Court. The reference under section 18 is not in form of appeal but independent proceedings. The compensation awarded for irrigated and unirrigated land is extremely low beside for the land abutting Road.Coming to the compensation to be awarded for rest of the area, in our opinion the compensation determined for rest of the area is highly inadequate. The development has taken place around and particularly when "Vanasthaly Vidyapeeth" which is a world known education institution, was situated in close vicinity and lot of other development existed in the area, the land had high potentiality and both kinds of lands irrigated and unirrigated were capable of being used for residential purposes. However considering its distance from the road in order to arrive at the appropriate value it would be proper to make an overall 50% deduction to arrive at the just compensation to be awarded for rest of the land. Thus the 50% of the amount of Rs. 2,67,000/comes to Rs. 1,33,500/that we award for rest of the acquired land.8. The compensation for the land abutting road is awarded at Rs. 1,87,000/per bigha and for rest of the land, irrigated and unirrigated, at Rs. 1,33,500/per bigha along with statutory benefits. The compensation to be paid along with statutory benefits as envisaged under the Act within four months.