STATE OF MADRAS Vs. AISSABI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by the State is against the award of the enhanced compensation (to the tune of Rs. 9445-5-3) by the Subordinate Judge, Kozhikode, on a reference made to him under S.18 and 19 of the Land Acquisition Act.

(2.) The land acquired is a portion of T.S.No.1516 of Kozhikode town and is registered as garden land. It is 96 cents in extent and has been separately sub-divided as T. S. No. 1516/2. It was acquired on behalf of the Kozhikode Municipality for the construction of scavengers quarters. The following description of the land in Para.9 of the judgment under appeal is amply borne out by the evidence on record, even by the evidence of the witnesses examined on the side of the Government, and its correctness can scarcely be disputed:

(3.) Before the Collector, pursuant to the notice under S.9 of the Act, the owner of the land claimed a compensation of Rs. 40,000 as the value of the bare land in addition to a sum of Rs. 2000 as the value of a well and a basement, and a sum of Rs. 7000 as the value of cocoanut trees, standing thereon. There being no sales of similar lands in the neighbourhood in recent years the Collector valued the land on the basis of the income it yielded as garden land and, assessing the net income from the 44 bearing cocoanut trees standing on the land at Rs. 554-5-11, arrived at the market value of the land by capitalising this at twenty years purchase. To this he added the value of the cocoanut trees past bearing and of some miscellaneous trees and structures on the land and, inclusive of the 15 per cent solatium, arrived at the total compensation of Rs. 13700-11-3. He allowed no compensation for the well and basement on the ground that they were not visible on the land.