GITABAI Vs. KARYA PALAN YANTRI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal under section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, 'the Act'), is directed against the award dated 14.9.98 rendered by the IInd Addl. District Judge, Mhow, in Land Acquisition Reference Case No. 480/94.

(2.) THE acquired land is an irrigated agricultural land bearing survey numbers 15/1, 17/1 and 18/1, total area 0.249 hectares, situated at village Umaria. A tube -well and several trees are also situated on the land. The Notification u/S. 4(1) of the Act was issued on 10.6.88 and the one u/S. 6 was issued on 9.9.88. The Land Acquisition Officer assessed the amount of compensation at the rate of Rs. 67,500/ - per hectare. At the instance of the appellant the reference was made u/S. 18 of the Act to the Court below which after taking evidence of the parties enhanced the amount of compensation to Rs. 95,000/ - per hectare and also awarded some additional amount for the tube -well and trees. Feeling aggrieved by the award of the Court below, the appellant -owner has come up in appeal before this Court.

(3.) APPELLANT has produced four certified copies of sale -deeds Ex. P -2 to P -5 in the Court below and examined himself in evidence. These sale deeds were of un -irrigated lands and were of the dates 6.10.87, 8.8.88, 9.8.88 and 17.7.89. However, neither the vendor nor the vendee of any of these sale deeds were examined in evidence. The Court below, however, ignored these documents on the ground that these sale deeds do not pertain to the date of issuance of notification u/S. 4 of the Act. It is, however, not clear as to on what basis the Court below has come to the figure of Rs. 95,000/ - per hectare, which according to the Court below was the estimated market value of the land on the relevant date.