V MADHAVAN THAMPI Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This reference under S.113 CPC. is by the Additional Subordinate Judge, Trivandrum, in a land acquisition case. The acquisition is by the Government for the Board of Trustees for the Improvement of the City of Trivandrum. Under S.73 of the Trivandrum City Improvement Trust Act, 1960, (Act I of 1961) acquisitions, of land for the Board have to be under the Land Acquisition Act subject to the modifications specified in the schedule to the former Act, one such modification being omission of the provision for payment of solatium. Counsel for the proprietor challenged that omission as discriminatory and therefore void. It is on that challenge, the Subordinate Judge has referred this case to this Court, with his opinion that the challenge is supported by the precedent, Balammal v. State of Madras AIR 1968 SC 1425 . That precedent concerned S.73 and the Schedule of the Madras City Improvement Trust Act, 1950, which are similar in expression to S.73 and Schedule of the Trivandrum City Improvement Trust Act, 1960. Their Lordships observed:

(2.) The acquisition here is by the Government under the Land Acquisition Act though for being subsequently transferred to the Board. The above cited dictum in Balammal's case AIR 1968 SC 1425 is that the law of compensation for acquisitions made by the Government for public purposes is as provided in the Land Acquisition Act, and any Act which provides for a different measure of compensation for acquisitions by Government is discriminatory and void.