SPECIAL LAND ACQUISITION OFFICER Vs. RAYAPPA DHARMANNA NEMAGOUD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE seven appeals are filed by the Special Land Acquisition Officer, Upper Krishna Project, Jamkhandi, Athani, challenging the common judgment passed by the Reference Court awarding compensation uniformly at the rate of Rs. 1,90,000/- per acre treating these lands as sugarcane growing lands. The claimants have flied Cross Objections in all these appeals seeking enhancement of compensation. Both the appeals and the cross objections are heard together and are disposed of by this common judgment.

(2.) FACTS as are clear from the judgment under challenge are that the claimants in these seven appeals are the owners of various lands. For the sake of convenience, the details of survey numbers, the place where the lands are situated and the extent of lands acquired can be usefully extracted in a tabular form as under:

(3.) THE claimants have produced the yield Notification pertaining to sugarcane crop for the years 1998-99 till 2004-05 as per Ex.P23. THEy have also produced the price list of the sugarcane issued by Nandi Cooperative Sugar Factory, Bijapur District, as per Ex.P24-A. This price list pertains to the years 1992-93 till 2004-05. THE Reference Court has discussed the Yield Notification and the price list at paragraph- 19 of the judgment and has come to the conclusion that as per the yields statistic furnished, the farmers of Athani used to grow sugarcane in the range of 50 to 52 tonnes during 1999-2000 till 2003-04. It has also pointed out that as per the price list, the price of sugarcane was at the rate of Rs.882/ - for 2000-01, Rs.868/- for 2001-02 and Rs.957/- for 2002-03. It has therefore observed that the average price of sugarcane as on the date of the Notification would come to Rs.902/-. But while calculating the market value, the Reference Court persuaded itself to take the yield as 42 tonnes per acre and multiplies it by Rs.902/ - per tonne and arrives at Rs.37,884/- per acre as income. Deducting 50% towards the cost of cultivation, the income is arrived at Rs. 18,942/-. Applying the multiplier of 10, the market value is arrived at Rs. 1,89,420/- rounded off to Rs.1,90,000/-