BOMBAY IMPROVEMENT TRUST Vs. MERVANJI MANEKJI MISTRY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from the decision of the Tribunal of appeal constituted under the City of Bombay Improvement Trust Act. A reference lay before them with regard to Case No. 58 in Scheme 60 comprising 22,896 sq. yards, situated on the Bhoivada Road. The date of notification was September 11, 1919, and the date of declaration was December 4, 1919. Th& tenure was Pension and Tax, and the Land Acquisition Officer had awarded Rs. 1,83,968 as compensation for all interests at Rs. 8 a square yard. The land had a frontage on the Bhoivada Road of 130 feet and a depth of 460 feet, while there was a passage on the north and another passage on the south. At the time of the acquisition, it was practically vacant. The building materials thereon were _ valued at Rs. 800. The claimant before the Land Acquisition Officer had asked for compensation at the rate of Rs. 25 a square yard. Before the Tribunal he asked for compensation at the rate of Rs. 15 a square yard plus. Rs. 800, the value of the building materials, which had not been disputed.

(2.) The assessors were of opinion that Rs. 12 a square yard should be awarded-for all interests in the claimant's land. The President of the Tribunal was of opinion that the Land Acquisition Officer's award was sufficient. In accordance with the opinion of the! majority of the Tribunal, the award of the Land Acquisition Officer was increased from Rs. 1,83,968 to Rs. 2,75,552, and this latter sum was awarded as; the value of all interests, with interest at six per cent, from the date of taking possession until payment into the Tribunal. An application was made to the President to grant a certificate that the case was a fit one for appeal, and in granting a certificate the President said: Two members of the Tribunal slate in the judgment that they rely on certain of the claimant's instances as showing market value but give no reasons to show how they have considered the objections which were urged against those instances and why they do not act on the instance proved by the Trust, and they increase; the award by Rs. 91,000.

(3.) It was contended for the claimant that the Tribunal was a technical body appointed to consider such questions, but the facts of this reference were free from all technicality and the points raised were really more appropriate for consideration by a Court of law than by a Tribunal. In August 1917, the claimant had purchased a total area of 45,636 square yards for Rs. 62,000, and immediately thereafter he framed a plotting scheme for the development of the land fronting on Bhoivada Road. The plan at page 4 of the book of plans shows the lay-out of the scheme.