K.SUKUMARAN NAIR Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) CLAIMANT Nos. 2, 3, 9, 10, 14 and 15 in L.A.R.No. 1/1994 before the Sub Judge, Neyyattinkara, have come up in appeal against the judgment of the Sub judge in that L.A.R. Subsequent to the filing of this appeal, the 4th appellant died and additional appellants 7, 8 and 9 have been impleaded as legal heirs of the 4th appellant. The 3rd appellant has also been recorded as another legal heir of the deceased 4th appellant. Separate properties of the appellants along with separate properties of other claimants were acquired by the State pursuant to a notification dated 23.9.1991 under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act. Since the claimants objected to the fixation of land value by the land acquisition officer, the matter was referred to the Sub Judge as L.A.R.No. 1/1994. Originally, the appellants herein did not participate in the proceedings before the Sub Judge and an award was passed closing the reference as against the appellants herein passing an award in favour of the other claimants. Thereafter, the appellants filed W.P.(C).No.30696/2004 before this Court, in which, the award as against the appellants was set aside and the reference as against the appellants was remanded for fresh consideration. Pursuant to such remand, revised award was passed by the Sub Court in respect of the claim of the appellants, which is the award impugned in this appeal. The land acquisition officer categorized the properties into various categories as categories A to G. The properties belonging to appellants 1 and 2 were categorized as E category properties and the properties belonging to the other appellants were categorized as D category property. For E category properties, the land acquisition officer fixed land value at Rs. 1574/ - per cent. The reference court enhanced it to Rs. 2787/ - per cent. For D category properties, the land acquisition officer fixed land value at Rs. 1657/ -. The same was enhanced to Rs. 2934/ - per cent by the reference court. The appellants seek enhancement of the land value for the land acquired from them, in this appeal.

(2.) THE appellants rely on a judgment of this Court in L.A.A.No.860/2001 filed by claimant Nos. 17 and 19 as against the original award passed in the claims of other claimants. That appeal related to properties categorized as A, D and G. This Court enhanced the land value of D category property to Rs. 4000/ - per cent. This Court did not interfere with the fixation of land value for A category property in that appeal.

(3.) THE learned Government Pleader would contend that as far as E category properties are concerned, appellants 1 and 2 are not entitled to any enhancement of land value insofar as the judgment in L.A.A.No.860/2001 did not deal with E category properties at all. It is further submitted that simply because, for D category properties this Court enhanced land value, that does not automatically mean that for other categories of properties also, proportionate increase has to be given. The learned Government Pleader points out that in this connection it is pertinent to note that for A category properties, this Court did not grant proportionate increase in the land value in proportion to the increase in land value of D category property, in L.A.A.No.860/2001. According to the learned Government Pleader, the appellants have not adduced any reliable evidence to show that E category properties would fetch more than Rs. 2787/ - per cent.