FULABHAI KOYABHAI Vs. SPL LAQ OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY filing these appeals under Section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 ("the Act" for short) read with Section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, the claimant/claimants claim/claims that the additional amount of compensation awarded to him/them at the rate of Rs.23/ - per sq.mt. for their acquired lands over and above the amount of compensation offered to him/them at the rate of Rs.23/ - per sq.mt. by the Special Land Officer by his award dated October 3, 1998 is inadequate and that they should be further awarded compensation at the rate of Rs.23/ - per sq.mt.

(2.) A proposal was received by the State Government to acquire the lands of village Matoda, Taluka:Sanand, District:Ahmedabad for the public purpose of construction of a road between village Matoda and village Modasar of Sanand Taluka. On perusal of the same, the State Government was satisfied that the lands of village Matoda were likely to be needed for said public purpose. It may be mentioned that possession of the lands needed for the said public purpose was taken over in the year 1972 -73 but notification under Section 4(1) of the Act was issued which was published in the Official Gazette on February 1, 1996. Thereafter necessary inquiry under Section 5 of the Act was made and a report under Section 5A(2) of the Act was forwarded by the Special Land Acquisition Officer to the State Government. On the basis of the said report the State Government was satisfied that the lands specified in the notification published under Section 4(1) of the Act were needed for the public purpose of construction of a road between the village Matoda and Modasar. Therefore, a declaration under Section 6 of the Act was made which was published for the Official Gazette on September 19, 1997. The interested persons were thereafter served with notices for determining the amount of compensation payable to them. Accordingly, the claimants appeared before the Special Land Acquisition Officer and claimed compensation at the rate of Rs.200/ - per sq.mt. However, having regard to the materials placed before him the Special Land Acquisition Officer by his award dated October 3, 1998 offered compensation to the claimants at the rate of Rs.23/ - per sq.mt. The claimants were of the opinion that the offer of compensation made to them was totally inadequate. Therefore, they submitted applications under Section 18 of the Act requiring the Special Land Acquisition Officer to refer their cases to the Court for determination of this amount of compensation payable to them. Accordingly, references were made to District Court (R) at Ahmedabad where they were registered as Land Acquisition Case Nos.255/2000 to 273/2000.

(3.) ON behalf of the claimants witness Mavjibhai Ramjibhai was examined at Exh.48. The witness mentioned before the Court that the lands acquired were highly fertile and that his village Matoda was fully developed. The witness stated before the Court that village Sanand was situated at a distance of 4 to 5 kilometers from his village Matoda. After stating so the witness claimed before the Court that the lands of village Sanand were also acquired for public purpose and the Reference Court had awarded additional amount of compensation to the claimants at the rate of Rs.65/ - per sq.mt. over and above compensation awarded at the rate of Rs.5 per sq.mt. by the Special Land Acquisition Officer. In support of this assertion the witness produced previous award of the Reference Court relating to the lands of village Sanand at Exh.43 and claimed that the claimants were entitled to enhanced compensation on the basis of the said award. The witness furher stated that, feeling aggrieved the claimants had approached the High Court and the High Court in F.A. Nos.3892/98 to 3896/98 had enhanced compensation payable to the claimants at the rate of Rs.90/ - per sq.mt. by judgment dated September 29, 1998 and asserted that claimants in the instant cases were entitled to enhanced compensation on the basis of the said previous award of the Reference Court as modified by the High Court.