SAMBHUNATH BHOWMIK Vs. LAND ACQUISITION COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal under section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) is directed against the judgment dated 10 -05 -2007 passed by the learned Land Acquisition Judge, North Tripura, Kailashahar whereby he assessed the value of the land of the petitioners at Rs. 5,00,000/ - per acre or Rs. 2,00,000/ - per kani in respect of viti type of land; in respect of layakpatit type of land the assessment was made at Rs. 3,50,000/ - per acre or Rs. 1,40,000/ - per kani and in respect of the pond or pukur type of land the assessment was made at Rs. 2,50,000/ - per acre or Rs. 1,00,000/ - per kani.

(2.) THE undisputed facts are that land measuring 0.443 acres belonging to the petitioners was acquired vide notification dated 27 -05 -2002. After declaration under section 6 of the Act was issued, the Land Acquisition Collector passed an award on 04 -09 -2002 whereby he assessed the compensation of the various classification of land as follows: -

(3.) AS far as the acquired land is concerned, it has come in evidence that this land is low lying land and that the petitioner -land owners and their family were residing in their original house near the Old Motor Stand at Kailashahar. It has also come in evidence that since this land was an open piece of land, it was often used by the Bengal Tiger Club of Paitorbazar to celebrate Durga Puja for about 20 years before the acquisition. PW -2 has himself admitted in cross -examination that the claimants never resided in their house on the acquired land. This clearly shows that nobody was living on the acquired land. Therefore, it had no pucca construction and it was more in the nature of a land abandoned by the owners.