IIND ADDITIONAL SPECIAL LAND ACQUISITION OFFICER Vs. RUKHIBEN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Additional Special Land Acquisition Officer is in appeal before us, aggrieved by the impugned judgment of the High Court wherein the market value of the lands acquired was determined at the rate of rupees ninety per square metre as against the determination of the market value at the rate of rupees seventy per square metre by the Reference Court.

(2.) The learned counsel for the appellants urged two contentions before us; one, that the respondents were entitled to additional benefits from the date of issuing of notification under Section 4 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short "the Act"). In this case, the notification under Section 4 (1) of the Act was issued on 5-9-1991 and the possession of the acquired lands was taken in 1962-63. The High Court was not right in awarding additional compensation from the date of taking possession of the lands acquired; it should have been from the date on which the notification under Section 4 (1) of the Act was issued, in the light of the judgment of this Court in Siddappa Vasappa Kuri v. Special Land Acquisition Officer.

(3.) We may state here itself that this contention is not disputed by the learned counsel for the respondents. The second contention urged by the learned counsel for the appellants is that the Reference Court having already taken into consideration the escalation in price and fixing the market value at the rate of rupees seventy per square metre, the High Court was not right and justified in further enhancing the amount of compensation from rupees seventy per square metre to rupees ninety per square metre.