Special Land Acquisition Officer and The Chief Engineer, Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. vs Mahadev Raghuvir Prabhudessai (Since deceased through his legal heirs) (Mr. Mukund Mahadev Prabhudessai and Others)

N.A. Britto, J.—Heard Shri Afonso, the learned Counsel on behalf of the appellant. These appeals arise from judgments dated 5/02/2004 of the learned Reference Court in Land Acquisition Nos. 446/95 and 443/95, respectively.

The land covered in Land Acquisition No. 446/95 is 20650 square metres of Survey No. 83/4, 83/6, 84/1 and 78/19 of Loliem Village. The land covered in Land Acquisition Case No. 443/95 is 950 square metres of Survey No. 83/5 of the same village. The lands were covered by the same notification published on Gazette dated 27/06/1991 and were acquired for the construction of the new broad gauge line for the Konkan Railway. In both the cases, the Land Acquisition Officer by award dated 31/03/1994 has awarded compensation at the rate of Rs. 4/- per square metre. The learned Reference Court in Land Acquisition Case No. 446/95 has enhanced the compensation from Rs. 4/- to Rs. 25/- per square metre and in Land Acquisition Case No. 443/95 from Rs. 4/- to Rs. 21/- per square metre.

This Court in First Appeal No. 42/2005 by judgment dated 6/10/2010 in the case of Smt. Shrimati Vishwanath Acharya (since deceased by her legal representative) Madhav Vishwanath Acharya v. Special Land Acquisition Officer and Anr., has enhanced the compensation from Rs. 4/- per square metre to Rs. 21/- per square metre in respect of Survey No. 180/1 and 172/1 of Loliem Village in Canacona Taluka, also acquired for the same purpose and by virtue of the same notification published on Gazette dated 27/06/1991. In fixing the said compensation, this Court has excluded the amount received by the applicants as the value of the trees which was paid to the applicants.

Similar lands situated in the same village acquired under the same notification need to be given same compensation so as to avoid disparity in payment of compensation.

The Apex Court in several cases including the case of Printers House Pvt. Ltd. v. Mst. Saiyadan (deceased) by LR''s and Ors. 1994 SC 1160, has held that:

If ''Comparable Sales Method of Valuation of land'' is adopted for determining the market-value of an acquired plot of land, it generally holds good for determination of the market-value of several acquired plots of land if the acquisition of all such plots of land is made pursuant to the same preliminary Notification.

In view of the above principle, compensation payable in Land Acquisition Case No. 443/95 enhanced from Rs. 4/- to Rs. 21/- per square metre is maintained and in Land Acquisition Case No. 446/95, the compensation payable is reduced from Rs. 25/- to Rs. 21/- per square metre. It is made clear that compensation paid for the trees will not be included in the market value of the land at the rate of Rs. 21/- per square metre in view of Clause secondly, of Sub-section (1) of Section 23 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. The applicants would be entitled to receive the compensation with all statutory benefits. Both the appeals are accordingly disposed of.