ABDUL GAFUR KHAN Vs. GOVERNMENT OF BANGLA­DESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two appeals, one by the Government, and the other by the land owner whose land has been acquired, are directed against the common judgment of a Single Judge of the High Court Division, Rangpur Bench, dated 14 November, 1982. By this judgment the compensation as awarded by the Arbitrator (District Judge) was enhanced; but both the parties challenged the enhancement contending that the enhancement was made arbitrarily and not in accordance with law though they differ as to which is the appropriate law governing the subject.

(2.) An area of 9.09 acres of land including a tank, which admittedly belonged to appellants in Civil Appeal No, 60 of 1983, was requisitioned under section 3 of the Emergency Requisition of Property Act, and possession was taken on 8 March 1961 for construction of WAPDA Colony. Subsequently, the land was acquired on 1 November 1968. The Deputy Commissioner, Rajshahi, assessed compensation at Tk. 41,053.03 paisa, the rate of which comes to about Tk. 4,500/- per acre. The land owners did not accept this assessment on the ground that it was very inadequate and brought the matter to the Arbitrator appointed under this Act. Before the Arbitrator the Government produced some sale-deeds of the years 1958-61 in order to show that the average value of similarly situated lands in the neighborhood was Tk. 6,000/- per acre; whereas the land owners produced some sale deeds of the year 1968 showing per acre value of land in the vicinity at Tk. 60,000/-. The Arbitrator did not accept either of these two widely divergent claims and fixed valuation at Tk. 20,000/- per acre, and on that basis made an award for Tk. 2,52,361/-. The owners filed an appeal First Miscellaneous Appeal No. 242 of 1979and the learned Single Judge of the High Court Division by the impugned judgment took the average value of land during the period between the year 1961 in which the land was requisitioned, and the 1868 in which the land was finally acquired, and on that basis fixed the valuation at Tk, 30,000/- per acre. Accordingly, the learned Single Judge raised the assessment from Tk. 2,52, 361/- to Tk. 3,50,000/-.

(3.) Leave was granted to both Government in Civil Appeal No. 137 of 1983 and the land owners in Civil Appeal No. 60 of 1983 to examine whether the assessment as finally made by the learned Single Judge was in accordance with the law governing the subject.