RAJENDRA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This first appeal invoking the jurisdiction of this Court under section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure takes an exception to the judgment dated 7/3/1987 passed by the learned Civil Judge, Senior Division in Land Acquisition Reference Case No.38 of 1983 under section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, the Act), whereby the respondent-State was directed to pay compensation at the enhanced rate of Rs.6,000/- per acre, though the Land Acquisition Officer awarded the compensation @ Rs.4,000/- per acre.

(2.) Brief facts are as under:

(3.) Mr. Kaptan, the learned counsel for the appellant contended that though agricultural land has been acquired, it had a potential use of non agricultural, because the land has been acquired for the purpose of Gaothan. He contended that as many as six sale instances were relied on by the appellant and these sale instances are dated 18/2/1970 duly proved through the evidence of Shankar (P.W.2) dated 2/11/1971 and 18/2/1970 duly proved through the evidence of Devidas (P.W.3), dated 30/4/1979 duly proved through the evidence of Ramdas Raut (P.W.5) and the last sale instance dated 28/2/1980 has been proved through the evidence of Ramdas Yenkar (P.W.6). He contended that though the small pieces of land were sold by the vendors by virtue of the afore said sale instances, fact remains that those sale instances ought to have been taken into consideration for determining the potential value of the land under acquisition. He contended that taking into consideration the topography of the land and the general trend of rise in the prices of the land, the Reference Court ought to have taken into consideration that the land acquired had a potentiality of being developed as an urban land and those sale instances could not have been discarded on the sole reason that they are much prior to the date of notification published under section 4 of the Act. He contended that those pieces of lands which were sold during the period 1970 to 28/2/1980 were situated nearby the acquired land and this evidence was more than sufficient to award compensation @ Rs.15,000/- per acre. He further contended that the impugned order passed by the Reference Court deserves to be modified suitably. In support of these submissions he relied on the decision of -the Supreme Court in the case of Land Acquisition Officer, Revenue Divisional Officer Vs. L. Kamalamma, 1998 2 SCC 385.