COLLECTOR OF DACCA Vs. HARI DAS BYSAK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appaal against a judgment of the District Judge of Dacca in a reference made to him under the Land Acquisition Act. The land in respect of which the claimants claimad compensation consisted of 3 bighas, 4 kothas, 16 dhurs in area and was acquired by the Municipality of Naraingunj for the purpose of constructing a road in that Municipality leading from the Henderson Road to Khanpur. The declaration under the Act was issued on the 1st July 1904, and published in the Calcutta Gazette on the 6th July of the same year. The land acquired was admittedly land which was partly used for the purpose of agriculture and partly formed portion of a pathway over which the public had a right of way. The proprietors of the land who may be described as the Bysaks are 14 in number and, under them, there were tenants, 8 in number, who claimed to be tenants with rights of occupancy. The Collector treating the land as agricultural assessed the interest of the tenants, whom he held to be tenants with rights of occupancy, at Rs. 60 per bigha and the interest of the landlords at Rs. 21 per bigha, or 25 times the annual rental. Besides this, he allowed the statutory allowance to the claimants. For the land covered by the pathway in which the public had a right of way, he allowed a sum of Rs. 10 per bigha to the landlords. The tenants were satisfied with the Collector s assessment and withdrew the amounts awarded to them. The landlords refused to accept the assessment of the Collector. They valued the land at Rs. 1,500 per bigha on the ground that it was land within the limits of the Naraingunj Municipality in which the tenants had no right of occupancy, and they claimed to be entitled to the whole of the compensation. The case was accordingly referred to the Civil Court for disposal.

(2.) The Land Acquisition Judge has fixed the value of the land acquired at Rs. 550 per bigha and has awarded the whole to the landlords without making any allowance whatever for the sums which have been taken away by the tenants. The present appeal has been preferred to this Court by the Collector against the decision of the Land Acquisition Judge.

(3.) It has been contended on behalf of the appellants, first, that the Judge was wrong in the principle which he adopted for the purpose of valuation; and secondly, that even if the valuation of Rs. 550 per bigha arrived at by the Judge be accepted as the proper valuation, he should have deducted from that amount the sums which were paid to the tenants and ordered the balance only to be paid to the landlords.