V C VARGHESE Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE claimant is in appeal. His lands with buildings situated in Veliyannur village of Meenachil taluk was acquired for the purpose of upgradation of M.C. Road from Moovatupuzha to Ettumannoor. THE acquisition was pursuant to Section 4(1) notification published on 31/01/06. THE land was garden lands and the Land Acquisition Officer awarded land value at the rate of ` 15,585/- per Are. For the building, he was awarded a total amount of ` 26,484/- by the Land Acquisition Officer. Before the Reference Court the only item of evidence relied on by the appellant was Ext.A1 fair value order issued by the Government in the year 2010. THE court below did not place any reliance on Ext.A1 for the obvious reason that the same is issued long after the publication of the notification under Section 4. THE appellant had not taken out a commission for substantiating his claim for additional building value. Nevertheless what the court below did was to do the guess work and re-fix the land value at ` 50,000/- per Are and to re-fix structure compensation at ` 52,000/-.

(2.) IN this appeal grounds are raised alleging that the compensation determined by the Reference Court is inadequate. Sri.C.Vathsalan, the learned counsel for the appellant addressed us in detail. He requested that the matter be remitted back to the Reference Court so that the appellant can examine the Advocate who has submitted a report regarding the properties under acquisition and also the structures which existed thereupon on the basis of an inspection conducted by him. He also submitted that the party has been able to find out documents in respect of comparable property revealing much higher value than what is awarded by the Reference Court.

(3.) THE judgment and decree under appeal are set aside and LAR.77/09 is remanded to the Sub Court, Pala for passage of a revised award after permitting both sides to adduce whatever further evidence they are desirous of adducing, subject to the following conditions:-