PROVINCE OF BENGAL Vs. JOY NARAYAN FATEHPURIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal in a land acquisition case from the decision of the President, Calcutta Improvement Tribunal; it relates to valuation regarding the acquired premises Nos. 24 Cockier Lane and 45 Lake Road.

(2.) Admittedly claimants 1 to 5 are joint owners of the said property having therein the following shares:

(3.) Claimants 1, 2 and 3 are brothers, claimant 4 is the son of claimant 2 and claimant 5 is an outsider purchaser. We are not concerned here with the claimant 6 who asserted that he was a lessee of the trees upon the land. The land is an irregular piece of land running east to west, measuring 4 Bighas 8 Cottas and abutting to the west on a narrow lane called Banamali Bidyasagar Lane and to the south on the open lands of the Calcutta Improvement Trust. The Land Acquisition Collector awarded Rs. 40,000 for the lands of the said premises but the claimants were not satisfied with it, they refused to accept the award and asked for reference under Section 18, Land Acquisition Act, by making two applications through their Advocate Mr. S.N. Mitra, one application was for Joynarain Patehpuria and others and the other for Mohan Lall Sew Lall (Firm) but the Land Acquisition Collector made the reference in respect of Joynarain and Mohan Lall claimants 1 and 5 only, taking.the view that the learned Advocate Mr. S.N. Mitra appearing in the case was not authorised by his vakalatnama to act for claimants 2 to 4. The Tribunal however enhanced the valuation of the entire area to 64,948/11/- thus giving an increase of 24,948/11/-(exclusive of the statutory allowance) over the award of the Collector.