STATE OF KERALA Vs. KARTHIYANI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) An interesting question which concerns the Court, clients and counsel arises in this case. Invariably in land acquisition cases, both the claimant and the Land Acquisition Officer will not examine any witnesses in order to prove the documents in which they rely. In this case the learned Government Pleader has specifically raised the question that the executants of the documents on which the respondent/claimant relies on has not been examined and therefore, the Court below erred in relying on the valuation contained in the above document. The learned Government Pleader has relied on a number of decisions of the Supreme Court to drive home the above point.

(2.) In the ruling reported in Inder Singh v. Union of India

(3.) In the ruling reported in State of U.P. v. Rajendra Singh 1996 (7) SCC 347 also neither the Vendor nor the Vendee was examined. Therefore, the Supreme Court held that the sale transactions are not evidence unless the Vendor or the Vendee has been examined in the Court. The following paragraph in the above judgment is extracted below: