KOTHAMASU KANAKARATHANIMA Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE following Judgment of the court was delivered by :

(2.) THIS is an appeal against the judgment of the High court of Andhra Pradesh by which it reduced the amount of compensation awarded to the appellants by the Subordinate Judge, Vijayawada in respect of certain lands belonging to them which were acquired by the State.

(3.) FOR determining the amount of compensation seven sale deeds were filed, Exs. A1 to A4, on behalf of the State and B1 to B3 on behalf of the appellants. A synopsis of the sale deeds has been made by the High court in its judgment and we can do no better than to reproduce it: <FRM>JUDGEMENT_304_AIR(SC)_1965Html1.htm</FRM> Out of these sale deeds Exs. A1 and A2 were rejected by the High court, A1 on the ground that it is several months earlier than the date of notification under s. 4 of the Act and Ex. A2 on the ground that the land comprised in it is some distance away from the land under acquisition and is also further away from Vijayawada than this land. The High court similarly rejected Ex. B2-2 on the ground that the transaction was entered into four months after the publication of the notification and on the further ground that it is located in the direction of Vijayawada at a distance of five furlongs from the land acquired. It has apparently rejected also Ex. B3, though the land sold thereunder is a part and parcel of the same land which is sought to be acquired. The ground appears to be that the land sold thereunder is only 36 cents in area. It has accepted Exs. A3 and A4 and on that basis awarded compensation at the rate of Rs. 4,500.00 per acre for all these lands. In so far as Ex. B1 is concerned the High court has taken the view that though it bears the date of 14/10/1946 the circumstances that it was actually registered on 13/02/1947 and some of the stamp papers used were in the names of persons unconnected with the transaction shows that it has really been ante-dated so as to make it appear to be earlier in point of time than the notification.