M.N. GURUMURTHY REDDY @ M.N. GURUMURTHY AND OTHERS Vs. LAND ACQUISITION OFFICER BANGALORE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY T. CHOWDAIAH ROAD, BANGALORE 560 020 AND THE COMMISSIONER BANGALORE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY T. CHOWDAIAH ROAD, BANGALORE 560 020 AND OT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE Orders will dispose of several petitions seeking the Review of Judgment dated 17th March, 2006, passed by the Division Bench presided over by H.L. Dattu (as His Lordship then was) accompanied by Justice A.S. Bopanna. These Review Petitions are accompanied by applications of even number seeking condonation of delay in excess of 1000 days.

(2.) THE facts germane for the decision, succinctly stated, are that Preliminary Notifications were issued by the Government of Karnataka between 17.09.1992 to 17.06.1993 pertaining to the acquisition of several lands for the creation of the outer Ring Road, Bengaluru. After preliminary enquiry, these lands were acquired by issuance of Final Notifications, Possession appears to have been taken over 14 years ago on 16.01.1997. Awards dated 27.06.1997 were duly published. In circa 1999 References were made to the Civil Court for determining the market value of the lands. These 17 land acquisition cases (LACs) were clubbed together. Reliance has specifically been made to Ext. P -5 in those proceedings, which in fact is the Award of the Reference Court in LAC No. 43/1999, fixing the market value of the land at Rs. 100 per square feet. This determination, assailed in MFA No. 2020/2001, has not been followed in the batch of 17 LACs, with which we are presently concerned, instead the market value has been fixed at Rs. 4.62 lakhs per acre. In so far as the Review Petitions before us are concerned in circa 2003, the Bangalore Development Authority preferred Appeals seeking a reduction of the determination of market value of Rs. 4.62 lakhs per acre, in which the respondents/erstwhile lands owners filed Cross Objections praying for adjudication of the market value of these lands at Rs. 6 00 lakhs per acre.

(3.) IT has been underscored by learned Senior Counsel for the BDA that in the months Of July/August 2006 all the present petitioners withdrew the compensation at the rate of Rs. 6.00 lakhs per acre. The acceptance of this compensation came in the wake of the decision in MFA Nos. 2020, 2022 and 2027 of 2001 dated 01.06.2006, wherein the market value was fixed at a much higher rate. It is indeed remarkable that the BDA did not think it necessary to file appeals against this computation by Order dated 01.06.2006. We only hope that this was not because of the influence wielded by those three appellants. We hope that this inaction possibly was because, as contended by the learned Senior Counsel for the respondents, buildings were existing on those three sites, thereby justifying their market value at Rs. 100 per square feet To complete the narration, the Division Bench in a subsequent appeal in MFA No. 6781/2006 by order dated 28.08.2007 had reduced the compensation from Rs. 100 / - per square feet to Rs. 75/ - per square feet.