KUNJUMON Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE claimants are the appellants. Their land in Peringala village situated within the area of Kayamkulam Municipality was acquired pursuant to Section 4(1) notification published on 6.10.2004. There was a building situated on the property. For the land, the Land Acquisition Officer awarded land value at the rate of Rs. 49,050/ - per Are. For the building the Land Acquisition Officer awarded Rs. 63,232/ -. Before the reference court, the evidence consisted of Exts.A1 to A3, Ext.C1 Commissioner's report and the oral evidence of Aws.1 to 3. AW3 was the Retired PWD Executive Engineer who authored Ext.A3 revised estimate. Under Ext.A3, the value of the building was assessed by AW3 at Rs. 1,13,411/ -. The court below did not completely accept Ext. A3 or the oral evidence given by AW3. However, to the great extent, Ext. A3 and AW3's evidence was accepted and an additional amount of Rs.25,000/ - was awarded towards building value. According to the appellants, this is inadequate. Ext. A3 should have been accepted in full. Regarding land value, the court below did not place reliance on any particular document. However, keeping in mind the values reflected in Ext.A1 sale deed, the learned sub judge would re -fix the land value at Rs.75,000/ - per Are.

(2.) IN this appeal, the ground raised is that the land value as well as the building value re -fixed by the reference court is inadequate.

(3.) OUR attention was drawn by the Learned Counsel for the appellants and the learned standing counsel for the Railways to various judgments of this Court including the judgments in LAA Nos. 1312/2010, 691/2011 and 661 of 2011. We find that all these judgments pertain to acquisition of comparable lands in the same Municipality for the same purpose pursuant to Section 4(1) notification. Land value fixed under the judgments varies - i.e. Rs. 90,000/ -, Rs. 89,000/ - and Rs. 89,500/ - respectively.