COLLECTOR OF DACCA Vs. GHOLAM KUDDUS CHOUDHURY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These five appeals are under Section 15, Letters Patent, and have arisen out of proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act. In pursuance of a declaration, dated 17th December 1928, lands were acquired for a project named " Landing Grounds for Aeroplanes at Dacca, in the village of Dhanmandal, Zillah Dacca." The village is just outside the Municipal limits, and the lands acquired were near the other lands in the village purchased by private owners for residential purposes. The lands acquired had tenants on them, having rights of occupancy; their landlords had lakheraj right in the same. The Collector valued the tenants interest in the lands acquired at Rs. 275 per bigha and the lakheraj right of the proprietors at twenty-five times the annual rent, and five years purchase in addition for the loss of selami of the net annual profit for rent paid by the tenants to the proprietors; the total valuation of all interests in the lands acquired was about Rs. 450 per bigha. The tenants accepted the Collector's award; there were, however, references under Section 18, Land Acquisition Act, to the Special Land Acquisition Judge, on applications made by the proprietors claiming increment of the valuation of their interest in the lands acquired. The proprietors claimed that the lands acquired should have been valued by the Collector at Rs. 5,000 a bigha.

(2.) The learned Special Land Acquisition Judge, on consideration of the materials placed before the Court, increased the valuation of the lands acquired: that value of the lands was estimated by the Judge at Rs. 1,150 per bigha. The increase in the valuation was based on three transactions subsequent to the notification under which the lands in question were acquired. The two Mirash Pottas, Exs. 1 and 2 in the case, according to which the value of the lands covered by the documents worked out at Rs. 1,350; a deduction was made from that valuation, for the reason that the lands acquired were at a greater distance from the town of Dacca, and therefore slightly less favourably situated. The third transaction relied upon by the Judge was an offer of which, as it appears from the Judge's judgment itself, the exact terms were not in evidence and in regard to which negotiations had not been completed. The evidence relating to this transaction was oral, coming from a witness examined on the side of the Government; from the particulars given by the witness in his deposition before the Court, the learned Judge came to the conclusion that the total value of the land, in regard to the granting of a permanent lease negotiations had not been completed, was E Section 1,150 per bigha. This plot of land comprised an area of five bighas adjoining the lands acquired. It may be noticed also, while referring to the judgment of the Special Land Acquisition Judge, that according to the Judge, the landlords claimants before the Court were entitled to get the full value of the land less the value of the tenant's interest as valued by the Collector. The landlords were to get Rs. 875 per bigha as their share of the value of the lands acquired.

(3.) The Collector of Dacca preferred appeals to this Court directed against the decision of the Special Land Acquisition Judge to which reference has been made above. The appeals (Appeals from Original. Decrees Nos. 242 to 247 of 1930) directed against that decision, were heard by two learned Judges of this Court; one of the six appeals (No. 247) was dismissed by the learned Judges, while in the other five (Nos. 242 to 246), there was difference of opinion as between the Judges, and those appeals were also dismissed in view of the provision contained in Section 98, Civil P. C. The Collector of Dacca preferred these appeals under Section 15, Letters Patent, in those five cases in which the opinion of the Senior Judge of the Division Bench prevailed.