1989 (8) TMI 355

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....Nos. 1(a) to 1(c) are the heirs and legal representatives of original claimant No. 1 and appellants Nos. 2(i) to 2(ii) are the heirs and legal representatives of original claimant No. 2. The acquisition was in respect of an area admeasuring 15 acres and 1 guntha belonging to claimant No. 1 (Original) and area admeasuring 6 acres and 25 gunthas belonging to claimant Nos. 1 and 2 (Original). The lands are situated in the Bhavnagar District and are on the outskirts of the Bhavnagar City and adjoining the Bhavnagar Rajkot Road. The acquisition forms part of a larger acquisition for the construction of an industrial estate at Bhavnagar. The preliminary notification under section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 was published on August 6, ....

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....upon to enter into a detailed scrutiny of the evidence led by the parties before the learned Civil Judge. The main instance relied upon by the claimants was by way of an agreement to sell dated January 21, 1957 and a sale deed dated April 2, 1957 in respect of the sale of 42552 square yards of land out of survey No. 333/2 which is adjoining the land with which we are concerned which forms part of survey No. 33 1. The land sold under this instance was known as "Kesarbagh" and was sold to Mahalaxmi Mills Limited by Prince Nirmal kumar singhji. The rate at which it was sold works out to ₹ 3 per sq. yard. On the basis of this instance, the claimants had made their claim at ₹ 3 per sq. yard before the Land Acquisition Offic....

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....s bound to have pushed up the price of land in the surrounding area. There is, however, nothing in the evidence to show that there was any sharp or speculative rise in the price of the land after the acquisition and this has been noticed by the High Court. It appears that under these circumstances, the High Court was not justified in not taking this instance into account at all as it has done on the ground that it was a post-acquisition sale and could not be regarded as a comparable instance at all. The market value of a piece of property for purposes of section 23 of the Land Acquisition Act is stated to be the price at which the property changes hands from a willing seller to a willing, but not too anxious a buyer, dealing at arms length.....

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....have paid some extra amount for the convenience of getting the neighbouring land. We find that the High Court placed reliance on the evidence furnished by the instances at Exhibit 112 relied on by the State. By Exhibit 112 land admeasuring 4 acres (19,360 sq. yard) was sold from Survey No. 384 for ₹ 8,000. This sale deed is dated February 23, 1953, that is, over a year prior to the date of the section 4 notification in the case before us. The purchaser stated in the witness box that apart from ₹ 8,000 mentioned as the consideration in the sale deed, he had to pay an extra amount of ₹ 4,000. Although the High Court has not relied upon this statement, it cannot be altogether ignored. The land was sold at a Government auctio....