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P.S. Mancachar,
District – Dhubri, Assam
- Appellants.
-versus-
R espondents
Advocates:
1. Mr. G.P. Bhowmik, Sr. Advocate,
2. Mr. Mouchumi Kalita, Advocate
- For appellants
- For respondents.
BEFORE
HON’BLE MRS. JUSTICE RUMI KUMARI PHUKAN
No.210/02, Misc. (L/A) Case No.211/05, Misc. (L/A) Case No.212/02, Misc. (L/A)
Case No.213/02, Misc. (L/A) Case No.214/02, Misc. (L/A) Case No.215/02, Misc.
(L/A) Case No.216/02, Misc. (L/A) Case No.217/02, Misc. (L/A) Case No.218/02,
Misc. (L/A) Case No.219/02, Misc. (L/A) Case No.220/02, Misc. (L/A) Case
No.221/02 and Misc. (L/A) Case No.222/02 dismissing the reference made by
the District Collector, Dhubri under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894
and thereby upholding the Award No.19 passed by the District Collector, Dhubri,
in L.A. Case No.12/93-94.
2. The appellants herein, who were petitioners in Misc. (L/A) Cases referred
hereinbefore, have filed the instant appeal challenging order dated 21.7.2004,
passed by the District Judge, Dhubri, dismissing the above mentioned Misc.
cases and upholding the award passed by the District Collector, Dhubri in L.A.
Case No.12/93-94, whereby the petitioners’ land, had been acquired by the
Deputy Collector, Dhubri at Village Thakuranbari covered by Periodic Patta
Nos.110, 170,30, 242,174, 209,241, 243, 173, 172, 144, 198, 31, 283 and 108
under Dag Nos. 132B, 133B, 139B, 140B, 141B, 624B, 624B, 145B, 143B, 146,
147B, 148B, 153B, 473B, 484B, 485B, 486B, 566B, 580, 596B, 458B and 144 B
totalling to an area of land measuring 17B – 4 K- 13 Lessas and at Mankachar
Chit No.2 (Extended town portion) covered by Periodic Patta No.217, 67, 48 &
49 under Dag Nos. 499B, 500B, 504B, 506B & 507B totalling an area of land
measuring 0B-4K-19 Lechas. The learned Collector, Dhubri fixed the value of the
land at Rs.19,000/- per Bigha and awarded a sum of Rs.83,662.14 only to the
appellants as total compensation towards market value of the land, value of
Zirat etc. vide Award No.19 in L.A. Case No.12/93-94. It is submitted by the
appellants that the market value of the land at the relevant time was about
Rs.1.75 lakhs per Bigha and the present market value of the land is about Rs.5
lakhs per bigha as Mankachar has become extended town at present.
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court below had not taken into consideration, all the relevant factors and had
failed to consider the exhibited sale deeds in ascertaining the fair and reasonable
market value of the acquired land prevailing at the time of acquisition. Another
ground on which these appeals have been preferred is that the learned District
Judge had not taken into consideration the fact that the award had been made
by the Deputy Commissioner-cum-Collector, Dhubri.
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1) The Hon’ble Supreme Court in 1988 (3) SCC 751 (Chim anlal
Hargovinddas Vs. Special Land Acquisition Officer, Poona and another )
wherein it has been held that -
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...........”.
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4) In 2008 (3) GLT 879 (Nalini Bordoloi and ors. Vs. District
6. On the basis of above, it has been submitted that the ratio of the
decisions mentioned above is not at all applied in this case and mere filing of
W.S. is not enough to prove the matter unless substantiated by proper evidence.
7. On the other hand, the learned counsel for the State Respondent
has submitted that there is no illegality in the assessment of the land value and
while the appellants have already received their compensation without any
protest, the same cannot be assailed at this stage. It is also contended that
appellants have failed to prove the sale deed as has been discussed by the
Referral Court, so the same cannot be accepted in evidence. Further it is
contended that the land shown in the sale deed does not pertains to the area of
the land under assessment so the same cannot be the basis to assess the
market value of the land.
been observed in the impugned judgment, it can be noted that the said
submission of the learned counsel for the respondents as well as the findings of
the Court below who has refused to accept the certified copy of the sale deeds
in evidence is without any legal basis in view of the provision of Section 51-A of
the Land Acquisition Act, 1984, which provides as follows :-
Rezia K hatun
Vs.
The Collector, Dhubri
5. That, the statem ents m ade in para 3(a) are denied. The
m arket value of the land w as assessed properly on the basis
of the sale deeds of 1992 to 1996 of village Thakuranbari @
Rs.19,900/ - per bigha.
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VERI FI CATI ON
I , Sri N.F.H. Hussain, L.A.O., Dhubri do hereby solem nly
affirm and declare that the above contents of the w ritten
objection are true to the best of m y know ledge, belief and
inform ation and I sign this verification on this 9 th day of
M ay/ 2003 at Dhubri.
Sd/ -
Land Acquisition Officer
Dhubri
Signature & Seal”
11. On the other hand, the appellants in all the cases have produced
three certified copies of Sale Deeds vide Exts.1, 2 and 3 and which can be
accepted in evidence as per Section 51-A of the Act and it is to be noted that the
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said land as described in the above three exhibits is from same place as has
been mentioned in the schedule of the land like Village – Thakuranbari, P.S.
Mancachar and it pertains to the years 1991, 1994 and 1995 and in the present
case the notification for acquisition of land was published as on 22.7.1997. In
the present case the value of the land per bigha has been assessed as
Rs.19,900/- whereas according to the aforesaid sale deeds, the value of land per
bigha will be Rs.1,17,000/- (average). Obviously, the assessment made by the
Collector at the time of awarding compensation is much below the prevailing
rate at the date of notification.
12. Now regarding the assessment of the market value, the Hon'ble
Apex Court, in (1993) 4 SCC 245 , reported in Gulzara Singh v. State of
Punjab , has held that “ to determ ine the m arket value of the land under
Section 23(1) of the Act, the sales of the land under requisition, if any,
or the sales in the neighbourhood lands that possessed of sam e or
sim ilar potentialities or fertility or other advantageous features w ould
furnish basis to determ ine just and fair m arket value on the prem ise of
a hypothetical w illing vendor and w illing vendee. The w illing vendor
w ho w ould offer the land and w illing vendee w ho w ould agree to
purchase the land as a prudent m an in norm al m arket conditions as on
the date of Notification or near about the date of the notification is the
acid test. If sale transactions relate to the lands under acquisition and
it found to be genuine and bona fide transactions betw een w illing
vendor and vendee then it m ay be considered but reasonable m argin
m ust be given in fix ing w holesale price. The sale and purchase of lands
at a throw aw ay price at arm 's length or depressed sales or façade of
sales brought into existence in quick succession to inflate the m arket
value w ould not offer any basis to determ ine just m arket value. In
order to adjudge w hether sales are bona fide sales betw een w illing
vendor and w illing vendee and w hether the consideration m entioned
in the deed w as, in fact and really passed on under transaction;
w hether the lands covered by sale deeds and relied on, possessed of
sam e or sim ilar potentialities or fertilities or advantageous features
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“8. M arket value of the land under the L.A. Act is the m ain
com ponent of the am ount of com pensation aw ardable for
such land under Section 23(1) of the L.A. Act. The m arket
value of such land m ust relate to the date of publication of
the notification of giving the public notice of substance of
such notification according to Section 4(1) of the L.A. Act.”
15. In the case of K rishi Utpadan M andi Sam iti Sahasw an v. Bipin
K um ar & anr. AIR 2004 SC 2895 , it has been held by the Apex Court that for
the purpose of land acquisition Act, the market value must be determined on the
basis of Sale Deeds of comparable lands. In the given case, as has been noticed,
the land Acquisition Officer did not made any such comparable chart about the
sale deed.
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Deeds w hich have been executed w ithin a reasonable tim e from the
date of notification, w hich are bona fide transactions of land, situated
nearby the acquired land and having sim ilar advantages, can safely be
relied upon by the reference Court for calculating the fair m arket value
of the acquired land .” For arriving at a fair market value, the Court may take
into consideration of potentiality of the land being utilized in the near future at a
building site although at the relevant time i.e. on the date of notification under
Section 4 of the Act, the land is utilized for agricultural purpose. The reference
Court held to have committed no error in ascertaining the price of the acquired
land on the basis of the Sale Deeds. The damage to the plantation of the land so
acquired has also not been properly proved by the appellants’ side so as to
assess the Zirat and, accordingly, the same is rejected.
JUDGE
ISINGH
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