PANDIT RANBA SHIRAME Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants-original claimants have challenged the judgment and award passed by the learned IInd Civil Judge, Senior Division, Nanded (hereinafter for the sake of brevity referred to as "the Reference Court") in L.A.R. No. 339 of 1995 on 12/8/2002. Under the impugned judgment, the reference court has dismissed the Land Acquisition Reference of the present appellants by upholding the award passed by the Special Land Acquisition Officer, P.T. & MIW No.1, Nanded.

(2.) The background facts leading to this appeal are as under:- The appellants were owners and possessors of land bearing survey No. 159/2 admeasuring 15 Are and 28 Are, situated at village Hadoli (Jahagir). The respondents then acquired the aforesaid land for construction of percolation tank at village Hadoli and issued notification under Sec. 4 of Land Acquisition Act, which was published in the village on 19/8/1991. At the relevant time, the appellants had demanded rate of Rs.75000.00 per hectare in respect of their acquired lands. However, respondent No.2 fixed the market price of the acquired land only at the rate of Rs.20,000.00 per hectare. According to the appellants, their land was well developed and capable of earning agricultural income at the rate of Rs.10,000.00 per year. They had also claimed that the village Hadoli was at a distance of 5 kilometers from Kandhar city and several facilities, such as, Gram Panchayat, post office, bank, dairy societies and high school were available there. However, the learned Reference Court dismissed the reference of the appellants. Hence, this appeal.

(3.) Learned counsel for the appellants, during the course of arguments, submitted that the appeal is filed challenging the impugned judgment and award only because the learned Reference Court failed to consider higher sale instances as observed by the S.L.A.O. in his original award. He further submitted that the learned S.L.A.O. had scrutinized the sale instances regarding the lands situated nearby to the acquired land and found that the sale instances were ranging from Rs.3478.00 per hectare to Rs.83,333.00 per hectare, during the period from 1986 to 1993. Thus, learned counsel for the appellants submitted that learned Reference Court should have considered the average market price of the acquired land to the tune of Rs.50,000.00 per hectare.