Land Acquisition Act, 1894 – ss.4 and 6 – Acquisition of land – Determination of fair market value – Just compensation – Land Acquisition Officer assessed market value of the acquired lands @ Rs.6,87,837/- per acre – Reference Court enhanced it, @ Rs.9,65,000/- per acre – High Court, taking average price of two sale deeds – exhibit P-73 and P-74 relied upon by original claimantsappellants, determined the price of Rs.22,57,000/- per acre, and, thereafter giving a cut of 50%, determined market value of the acquired lands at Rs.11,28,580/- (round off to Rs.11,30,000/-) per acre – On appeal, held: High Court relied upon sale instances exhibit P-73 and P-74 against which no appeals were preferred by the Administration – Therefore, findings recorded by High Court that the sale instances i.e. exhibit P-73 and P-74 can be best exemplars and can be considered for determining and assessing the market value of the lands acquired, has attained finality – Further, nothing was discussed by the High Court while applying a deduction of 50%, therefore, in the normal course the matters were to be remanded to the High Court for applying the proper cut – However, the parties requested the Supreme Court to make appropriate percentage of deduction instead of remanding the matters to the High Court – Considering the location of the lands acquired and that part of the acquired land abuts the National Highway No.21 and at the same time, the sale instances exhibit P-73 & P-74 pertain to comparatively smaller plots as compared to the acquired lands, a deduction of 40 % instead of 50% as applied by the High Court, will meet the end of justice – Accordingly, Rs.13,54,200/- per acre awarded by Supreme Court towards compensation for the acquired lands.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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