B NARASIMHA REDDY Vs. R D O

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Letters Patent Appeal is preferred against the judgment in Appeal No.347/84 filed by the respondent herein under Section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act questioning the award made by the learned Subordinate Judge, Nalgonda, in O.P. 31 /82 on a reference under Sec. 18 of the act.

(2.) An extent of Ac. 6-00 of land belonging to the appellants in Survey No. 493 situate at Nakrekal village, Nalgonda district was acquired under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act for the purpose of providing house-sites to poor. The notification under Section 4 (1) of the Act was published in the Nalgonda District Gazette on 25-10-1977. The Land Acquisition Officer passed the award on 26-8-1981 fixing the compensation at the rate of Rs. 2,000/- per acre. The appellants protested and sought reference to the civil court. Appellants claimed compensation to be awarded at the rate of Rs. 30/- per sq. yard. Two agreements of sale and two registered sale-deeds were relied upon before the reference Court by the claimants as furnishing proof of comparable sale value of the land acquired. The learned Subordinate Judge placed reliance only on Ex. A-5 which is a registered sale-deed executed on 17-2-1976 by one Sogara Begum in favour of Kotagiri Somaiah. Under that sale-deed, an extent of 363 sq. yards situate in S.No. 334 of the same village was sold for the alleged consideration of Rs. 3,630 /-. In view of the fact that the land covered by Ex. A-5 is nearer to the village than the acquired land and having regard to the distance of the acquired land from the village, the learned Subordinate Judge did not fix the compensation at the same rate as in Ex.A-5, but fixed the compensation at Rs. 30,000/ - per acre. The Land Acquisition Officer (respondent herein) filed appeal in this Court. The learned Single Judge allowed the appeal for the reasons hereinafter mentioned, and fixed the market value at Rs. 15,000/- per acre. It may be stated that the appellants-claimants filed cross-examinations. As a consequence of allowing the appeal filed by the Land Acquisition Officer, the cross-objections of the claimants were dismissed. Aggrieved by the judgment of the learned single Judge, the present Letters Patent Appeal has been filed.

(3.) Before proceeding further, we may note that the learned single Judge was not inclined to place reliance on Ex. A-5 for two reasons. Firstly, the sale under Ex. A-5 is in respect of a small extent of 363 sq. yards of site situate in an adjacent village and it is one Km away from the land in question, and secondly, though the sale-deed was marked in evidence, neither the vendee nor the vendor was examined to show the circumstances under which the sale-deed came to be executed and as regards the passing of consideration. Having felt that Ex. A-5 cannot form a reasonable basis for determination of the market value, the learned Judge made a reference to the fact that surrounding lands in the village were being sold as house sites and fixed the market value at Rs. 15,000/- peracre on a rough and ready basis.