ATMARAM BHAGWANT GHADGAY Vs. COLLECTOR OF NAGPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In 1919 the Government of India acquired, under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act I of 1894, for the purposes of the extension of the Hump Yard of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway at Nagpur, an area of 258 acres, then under cultivation and within the holdings of twenty-five different owners. The appellant was one of these owners, claiming in respect of thirty-four acres of the land so acquired. His holding consisted of a main plot, with two separate patches adjacent thereto, so small however, that, as has throughout been agreed, these patches can have no effect upon the considerations in accordance with which the value of the appellant's whole area must be determined. The Collector acting under Section 11 of the Act, and treating the land as agricultural land only, awarded compensation to the appellant at a flat rate of Rs. 60 per acre. Indeed, he awarded the same flat rate, in respect of their holdings, to all the twenty-five owners of the 258 acres. And, although no serious case has been made against it if properly based upon agricultural value, the award of the Collector must have been in the nature of an agreeable surprise to the undertakers. The estimated cost of acquisition had been, as appears from the Land Acquisition Officer's Report, Rs. 62,000. aggregate sum actually awarded amounted to Its. 35,470 only.

(2.) The appellant did not accept the award, and he duly required the valuation of his land to be referred for the determination of the Court under Section 18 of the Act. He claimed compensation at the rate of Rs. 2,000 an acre a valuation based upon his assertion, not in the event established, that his land was an actual building site, and that it should be valued accordingly.

(3.) The case was in due course referred by the Land Acquisition Officer to the Additional District Judge of Nagpur, and before him voluminous evidence, both documentary and oral, was produced from both sides.