SALIL KUMAR GHOSE Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS first appeal is against the judgment dated 13th March 1951 of Sri D. N. Das, District Judge of Mayurbhanj, arising out of a reference under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, against the amount of compensation awarded under Section 11 of the Act by the Land Acquisition Collector. There were two notifications under Section 4(1) of the Act and they were of the dates 23rd December 1947 and 26th June 1948. Under the notifications fifteen acres of land of the present appellant were compulsorily acquired. Out of the 15 acres, 1.90 acres have been made culturable, 13.10 acres are still lying waste & there exists a tank on an area .22 which is included within the aforesaid 15 acres. According to the appellant's version, the land was originally taken by him for business purposes. Poultry and goat breeding farm and Khala for purchase and sale of paddy and rice were started after putting up some structures and excavating a tank. A portion of the land was converted into arable land for raising fodder for the poultry and goats. The business could not flourish for want of proper management and in course of time the houses collapsed for want of repairs. The appellant had laid his claim at Rs. 15,000/ - before the Land Acquisition Collector who however valued the land, in question, along with the tank at Rs. 775/ -. The Collector valued the arable land at the rate of Rs. 156/4/ - per acre, the waste land at the rate of Rs. 207 - per acre and the tank at Rs. 11578.

(2.) SO far as the agricultural lands are concerned, the appellant relies upon several sale deeds in respect of the lands situate in village Balgopalpur where the lands in question are situate and of other villages in the locality. Bidhyadharpur and Ganipur etc. The learned District Judge considered all these documents filed by the appellant and has rightly concentrated upon the sale deeds near about the time of the notifications under Section 4(1) for the materials whether the lands conveyed under the sale deeds exhibited on behalf of the appellant are exactly of the same nature as the lands under acquisition. On a perusal of these documents it appears that most of these Kabalas were in respect of Sthitiban lands which were agricultural lands for a long time. But according to the very case of the appellant the agricultural lands under consideration were made so only recently; but nevertheless the learned District Judge, has on a consideration of some of the documents filed by the appellant, come to the conclusion that the present agricultural lands could reasonably be valued at Rs. 300/ - per acre. It appears from Ex. 4 that some of the Chas lands of village Balgopalpur were Bold at Rs. 350/ - per acre as some lands of Bidyadharpur were sold for Rs. 300/ - as it appears from Ex. 4/b. As this valuation transpires from the documents filed by the appellant himself, we are not inclined to disturb the finding of the learned District Judge and the valuation of the lands made agricultural appears to be a reasonable one as fixed by him.

(3.) BUT the more difficult task is how to value the potentialities in the present case. The special position and the features of the land to be acquired in the present case are that such a large area under acquisition is a compact block; it is situate at a distance of nearly ten miles from the town of Balasore and abuts on the road side of the road from Balasore to Remuna. The learned District Judge has also believed P. W. 1's statement that in fact he had put some structures on the land in question for his poultry farm and other business. The structures indeed had fallen down & it leadsto the conclusion that they were not of a permanent nature. The Government after acquisition, have put some structures for sheltering the refugees. This indicates that the lands in question, without any further improvement being made on them, may reasonably be used for putting structures thereon. But the important material in this respect which is absent is whether the lands in question can bear the burden straightaway without any further improvement of permanent structures of substantial nature. Indeed if the material would have been there, the valuation must be more than the valuation of the agricultural lands. Moreover, there is no material that the entire area of the waste land in question could be converted into any temporary structures even by the appellant within a reasonable time. In spite of this lacuna and defect, on account of compactness of the area and that the lands abut on the roadside and further that temporary structures could be put on some portions of them, we are of the view that the valuation of the waste land at Rs. 100/ - per acre as fixed by the learned District Judge is low and we may reasonably fix it at Rs. 200/ - per acre.