LAND ACQUISITION OFFICER Vs. CHANDRASEKHAR REDDY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) M.F.A. 1178/85 is by the L.A.O. Lingasugur and M.F.A. 1548/85 is by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation ('KSRTC' for short), and both arise out and are directed against the Award and Decree dated 15-12-1984 made in LAC 53/82 on the file of the Court of the District Judge, Raichur, enhancing in proceedings and reference under Section 18 of Land Acquisition Act, compensation in respect of 3 acres and 33 1/3 guntas of land in S. No. 770A situate in Sindhnoor town in Raichur District, acquired for purposes of construction of a Bus-Station for the 'KSRTC' pursuant to the preliminary notification published in the Gazette dated 10-3-1977.

(2.) The LAO in his Award, (Ext. D-4), determined the market-value of the acquired land at 30Ps. per Sq. ft. and awarded compensation accordingly. The Court-below has fixed the market-value at Re. 1-50Ps. or Rs. 65,340/- per acre. The claimant--land - owner has filed cross-objections seeking further enhancement of the compensation to Rs. 3/-per. Sq. ft. or Rs. 1,30,680/- per acre.

(3.) Originally, the claimant owned an extent of 5 acres in the said Survey No. 770A. The acquired land is situate in and forms part of Sindagi town. It is on the Sindagi-Kushtagi road and had potentiality for building purposes Even earlier Government had proposed to acquire this land for the said purpose of the 'KSRTC' and had published a preliminary notification in the year 1967. The land-owner challenged this notification in a Writ Petition which culminated in the order dated 9-8-1981 quashing the preliminary notification. It was only on 10-3-1977 that a fresh preliminary notification under Section 4(1) was published again. In the meanwhile, the land-owner got the land--which was then an agricultural land--converted into non-agricultural use and is stated to have laid-out the land into building-lots and even sold some 18 sites at prices ranging from Rs. 2-50Ps. to Rs. 2.67Ps.per Sq.ft. Exts. P1 to P10 are some of the sale deeds respecting the sites. The evidence of market value afforded by these sales, is, however, assailed by the appellants on the ground that they were not bonafide transactions of sale, but merely sham and collusive transactions engineered by the land-owner himself to create artificial evidence of a higher market-value having had knowledge of the imminent fresh acquisition. We will advert to this aspect at an appropriate stage later. In the fresh proceedings for acquisition so initiated the land-owner claimed compensation at the rate of Rs. 6/- per Sq. ft. This claim was rejected by the LAO, who fixed the market-value at 0-30ps. per Sq ft. The land-owner not having accepted the offer, sought a reference to a Civil Court, in proceedings pursuant to which the Court-below enhanced the compensation to Rs. 1-50 per square foot.