SPECIAL LAND ACQUISITION OFFICER Vs. GANGABEN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AS common question of law and facts arise in all these First Appeals, and all these First Appeals arise out of the common Judgement and Award passed by the learned Reference Court, they are being heard together and decided and disposed of by this common judgement and order.

(2.) ALL these appeals, under section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act read with section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, have been preferred by the common appellants Special Land Acquisition Officer and another, challenging the common Judgement and Award passed by the learned 9th Additional Senior Civil Judge, Mehsana in Land Reference Case Nos.4499, 4500, 4501 and 4505 of 2003 dtd.26/3/2008 (Main Land Reference Case No. 4500 of 2003), by which the learned Reference Court has partly allowed the aforesaid Land Reference Cases filed by the original claimants under sec.18 of the Land Acquisition Act, directing the original opponents appellants herein to pay additional compensation to the original claimants at the rate of Rs.44 per sq.mtr. over and above the amount of compensation awarded by the Special Land Acquisition Officer, along with all other consequential statutory benefits.

(3.) ON appreciation of evidence and having held that village Balasar and village Laxmipura, both are having common boundaries and the lands of both the villages are having similar potentialities, Considering the previous Judgement and Award passed by this Court with respect to village Laxmipura, produced at Ex.14, as comparable instance and considering the difference of two years and one month between two notifications under section 4 of the Act with respect to both the lands, granting 10% price rise per year, the learned Reference Court determined the market price of the land in question at the rate of Rs.48.40 Paise per sq.mtr. and considering the fact that the Land Acquisition Officer has awarded Rs.4.50 Paise per sq.mtr, deducting the same learned Reference Court held that the claimants are entitled to additional compensation at the rate of Rs.43.90 Paise per sq.mtr. with all other statutory consequential benefits. Being aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the said Judgement and Award passed by learned Reference Court, the appellants have preferred these First Appeals along with the Civil Applications therein.