SPECIAL LAND ACQUISITION OFFICER KARNATAKA INDUSTRIAL AREAS DEVELOPMENT BOARD DHARWAD Vs. V G KULKARNI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) in this appeal the appellant is questioning the compensation awarded to the land acquired for the purposes of Karnataka industrial areas development board. The land is situated in block No. 105, kelageri village near dharwad, in all measuring 20 acres 4 guntas out of which 29 guntas is pot karab.

(2.) the land was notified for the acquisition as per the notification dated 6-1-1982published in the Karnataka gazette on 21-1-1982. The land acquisition officer awarded compensation at the rate of Rs. 8,000/- per acre. At the instance of the claimant the reference court has now awarded the compensation which comes to Rs. 3,90,000/- per acre (rs. 8.97 per square feet). While the land acquisition officer has awarded the compensation by treating the land as agricultural, the reference court has treated the land as urban land having immediate potentiality to be used as building sites. In the application filed for the reference, the claimant stated that the market-value of the land will be "more than" Rs. 1.5 lakhs per acre.

(3.) the reference court has relied on exs. P. 2 to p. 6, under which the landbelonging to the city improvement trust board were sold in auction as corner sites. The average price fetched under these five documents comes to Rs. 30.64 ps. Per square feet. From this 40% was deducted towards developmental expenses and thereafter another 30% was deducted because these were the sale deeds of the year 1985, three years after the commencement of the present acquisition proceedings. The reference court has estimated the escalation rate at 10% per annum. Another 25% was deducted on the ground that all the five sites sold under exs. P. 2 to p. 6 were corner sites and according to the reference court the price of the corner site will be 25% more than the price of other sites.