ASHIM CHANDRA DAW Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We would not have interfered with the impugned judgment passed by the Land Acquisition Court until the learned Advocate for the appellant had taken us through the various exhibited documents of the case justifying the error in the impugned judgment and convinced us to set aside the said impugned judgment having based upon guess work, which is normally impermissible in an acquisition proceeding.

(2.) Before we proceed to address the points agitated before us by the appellants and defended by the State respondents, it would be axiomatic to adumbrate the salient facts which are more or less undisputed.

(3.) The property in acquisition is the land measuring .8863 acres i.e. 2 Bighas 13 kattas 9 chattaks and 40 sq.ft together with the buildings standing thereupon which was initially owned by the mother of the appellants namely Smt. Aruna Rani Daw (since deceased) who expired on 11th November, 2017. A notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 was duly published in the Calcutta Gazette on 7th November, 1973 signifying their decision to acquire the said property to accommodate town outpost, C.I. Office and construction of staff quarters of Howrah Police Station. The possession was taken on 5th May, 1975 though the award passed by the Collector was declared on 29th March, 1975. The Land Acquisition Collector assessed the value of the land at Rs. 6,700/- per kattas and for a structure a consolidated sum of Rs. 1,03,338.85/-. The then owner accepted the awarded sum under protest and filed an application for reference to the Court under Section 18 of the said Act which upon reference was registered as Land Acquisition Miscellaneous Case No. 198 of 2008.