BHAGWAT SWAROOP Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AMITAVA Lala, J. All the aforesaid appeals are arising out of the proceedings for acquisition of land of village Mandola situate by the side of road in between Delhi and Baghpat. The acquired land was taken for the purpose of installing a project of National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd. and not for any residential or commercial purpose. Some of the appeals are made by the claimants and the others are by M/s. Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the Corporation ). We have clubbed together all the appeals and analogously heard.

(2.) THE Special Land Acquisition Officer (hereinafter referred to as the S. L. A. O.) collected several sale deeds for the purpose of determination of value of the acquired land and held that Rs. 20 per square yard will be the appropriate value of the land on the basis of various exemplar sale deeds.

(3.) NOW, another question arose as to whether any deduction, as made by the Court of reference from the payable compensation, is justifiable or not. In Land Acquisition Officer, Kammarapally Village v. Nookala Rajamallu. and others, AIR 2004 SC 1031 : 2004 (1) AWC 373 (SC), it has been held that the deduction can be made where the land is acquired for residential and commercial purpose with regard to roads and civic amenities, expenses of development of the sites by laying out roads, drains, sewers, water and electricity lines and the interest on the outlays for the period of deferment of the realization of the price, the profits on the venture etc. So far as this Court is concerned, it has discarded the deduction policy on various grounds. One of the grounds is that if the State or its authority acquires the land for the purpose of selling it to the ultimate purchasers upon making available facilities, they normally recover the price inclusive of common facilities, therefore, a Government or its authority cannot be doubly benefited either by deductions from the payment of compensation in one hand and by collections of price of such development from the ultimate purchasers on the other hand. It is also to be seen that no law prescribes deduction in paying compensation. It is to be remembered that deduction is an exception not the rule. See the decisions in National Thermal Power Corporation, Vidyut Nagar, Ghaziabad v. State of U. P. and another, 2007 (7) ADJ 595 : 2008 (1) AWC 462 (DB); Jagdish Chandra and others v. New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, Noida and another, 2008 (1) ADJ 253 (DB) and Ghaziabad Development Authority v. Chandrabhan and others, 2008 (6) ADJ 42 (DB ).