Jurisdictional threshold under Chapter XX-C must be tested share-wise; an authority cannot acquire the whole property beyond its powers.

For compulsory purchase under Chapter XX-C, the jurisdictional threshold had to be applied to each declared co-owner's specific share, not to the property as an undivided aggregate. Where the shares were already defined by partition, the authority could proceed only against those shares whose value exceeded the statutory limit; it could not extend acquisition to shares below that threshold by treating the entire property as one unit. Acceptance of money did not create jurisdiction where none existed, and acquisition of an undivided residential share did not justify treating the whole property as acquired.

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Issues: Whether the compulsory purchase order under Chapter XX-C could validly cover the petitioners' shares, particularly the shares whose declared value was below the statutory threshold, and whether the order could stand when the authority proceeded on the basis of the entire property as one undivided whole.

Analysis: The shares of the co-owners had already been declared and defined in a partition decree, and for the purpose of Chapter XX-C the relevant unit was each co-owner's specific share, not the aggregate value of all the shares together. The authority could therefore exercise jurisdiction only in respect of those shares whose value exceeded the prescribed limit. The authority nevertheless treated the entire property as one whole and sought to acquire even the shares whose value was below the threshold. The court further held that acceptance of money by the petitioners did not confer jurisdiction on the authority where none existed. It also observed that a compulsory purchase of an undivided share in a residential property would not justify the course adopted by the authority in treating the whole property as acquired.

Conclusion: The compulsory purchase order was without jurisdiction in relation to the shares below the statutory threshold and was unsustainable as a whole; the petition succeeded and the order was set aside in favour of the petitioners.

Ratio Decidendi: For compulsory purchase under Chapter XX-C, the jurisdictional threshold must be tested with reference to each declared co-owner's share, and an authority cannot acquire a property as a whole when it lacks jurisdiction over some of the specific shares.

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