SHRIRAM Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these appeals are preferred against the common judgment and award passed by the learned Land Reference Court Ahmedpur, District Latur dtd. 8/4/2008 in Land Acquisition References shown in the following chart:

(2.) Learned Advocates Mr. Eknath G. Irale along with Mr. H. B. Nandagavale and Mr. N. P. Jamalpurkar-Patil for the appellants pointed out the pleadings, evidence, impugned judgment and award and the grounds of objections raised in all these appeals. Learned Advocates for the appellants submitted that the lands of the claimants shown in above chart situated in village Hagdal, Tahsil Ahmadpur Dist. Latur were acquired for Hadgal Gudgal Storage Tank and taken into possession on 28/6/2002. The notification under Sec. 4 of the Land Acquisition Act was issued on 5/5/2005. The award was passed by the learned Land Acquisition Officer for short (L.A.O.) on 12/5/2006 by awarding compensation @Rs.475.00 per Are in group - I land and Rs.555.00 per Are in group - II for lands of the claimants. The said groups were determined on the basis of the assessment of the acquired lands as per the 7/12 extracts.

(3.) Learned Advocates for the appellants further submitted that, the learned Land Reference Court awarded Rs.2,000.00 per Are, which is inadequate amount of compensation. The sale exemplar Exhibit-26 dtd. 11/1/2001 of block no.254, admeasuring 60R of Thodga the adjacent village for consideration Rs.4,80,000.00 i.e. Rs.8000.00 per Are is relevant and a comparable sale exemplar. However, the learned Reference Court without giving proper reasons declined to rely upon the said sale exemplar and awarded meager amount of compensation. It failed to determine the market value on the date of notification under Sec. 4 dtd. 5/5/2005.