GEORGE VARGHESE AND Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE claimants are in appeal. Their lands in Maradu village were acquired for the purpose of construction of cargo terminal for the Inland Waterways Authority of India. The Land Acquisition Officer included the properties in category -B and awarded land value at the rate of Rs. 85,543/ - per Are. The Reference Court under the impugned judgment on the basis of the evidence that came on record re -fixed the land value at Rs. 1,26,000/ - per Are.

(2.) WE had occasion to deal with a large number of cases pertaining to acquisition of identical lands in the same village acquired for the same purpose (see our judgment in L.A.A. 637/05 etc.). Under that judgment we have re -fixed the value of land included in category -B by the L.A. authority at Rs. 1,50,000/ - per Are. For the reasons stated in that judgment, the value of lands under acquisition in this case is also liable to be re -fixed at Rs. 1,50,000/ - per Are. It is ordered accordingly.

(3.) SRI V. Santharam argued that there is absolutely no justification for awarding any compensation to the appellants for the extent of 1.164 Ares which is not covered by the award. According to him, even though the claimant stated in his evidence that he is having documents which will prove that the above extent is also covered by his title document, he did not bother to produce documents. He only took the stand that all documents were produced before the High Court in connection with an earlier Writ Petition for compelling reference under Section 18. Sri Santharam would read over to us certain portions of the evidence given by the claimant in support of his submissions. According to him, in the teeth of such evidence, there is absolutely no warrant for any re -consideration of the issue of the appellants eligibility for any compensation to the above extent of 1.164 Ares.