2002 (7) TMI 5

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.... them in that partnership, who were not members of the vendor's family had agreed to dissolve the firm. It was also stated that the petitioners before us were able to sort out the issues between the vendors under the agreement and those other partners who are not parties to the agreement. The price agreed for the property was Rs. 1,55,43,000. A sum of Rs. 10 lakhs was paid on the date of the agreement. It was mentioned in the agreement that there was encumbrance in the form of a decree obtained by a creditor bank of the vendors in C.S. No. 48 of 1972. The Appropriate Authority, after looking into that agreement, merely rejected that Form No. 37-1. It also directed the Sub-Registrar not to register any sale deed regarding the property, until a no objection certificate is issued by that Authority. Thereafter, the petitioners filed a suit C.S. No. 198 of 1991 against the vendors and, in that suit, a compromise was arrived at, and a decree was made on April 23,1991. Subsequently, a sale deed also was executed on September 3, 1991. In that sale deed, it is stated that the decree in the suit which was mentioned in the agreement to sell, had been purchased by one Farooq Maricar, and....

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....ng the reply, the Authority made to the impugned order on February 22, 1993, directing the compulsory purchase of the property under section 269UD(1) of the Act. Mr. Ramachandran, learned senior counsel for the petitioners, submitted that the impugned order is unsustainable, as it has failed to address itself to the basic question as to what the value of fourteen and half grounds is, as the method adopted by it for determining the market value of the property is not a method which can be countenanced in law, inasmuch as all that the Authority has done is to take two instances of sales which had taken place some eight months earlier, i.e., in January, 1989, in relation to two plots of two grounds each and relying solely on those transactions, applied the rate per ground ascertained from those transactions for this property and enhanced it further by assuming inflation in the subsequent months. Counsel submitted that the value paid by the petitioners was, in fact, the market value, as the property being a large one the extent being fourteen and half grounds with a large bungalow of about 6,000 sq. ft. thereon together with garages and other outlying buildings attached thereto, ....

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....e petitioners, the agreement between the petitioners and Iqbal and others by which those persons agreed to receive money from the petitioners and give up their rights in the property. It was submitted that the Authority is required to ascertain the market value as on the date of the agreement with all the advantages and disadvantages existing as on that date, as the amount agreed to be paid is an amount which a willing purchaser was ready to offer being fully conscious of all the risks and problems that were in existence in relation to the property as on the date of the agreement. Counsel further submitted that had the Government taken over the property on the date of the agreement, it would not have been able to secure the interest of the other three partners, as they were not parties to the agreement, and the fact that the petitioners subsequently filed a suit and also settled the claim of the other three partners who had earlier informed the petitioners and the vendors that they would be willing to settle, provided the property is sold to the petitioners, would have no bearing on the determination of the market value as on the date of the agreement. Though the impugned ord....

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.... them is a former chief engineer. However, the order does not indicate anywhere that specialised knowledge was utilised in a demonstrable way for the purpose of determining the value of this plot after taking relevant factors into account. No exercise done by that former chief engineer in that regard, if he in fact had done one is available in the record. The valuation has to be made as on the date of the agreement and after taking into account all the advantages and disadvantages then existing. The authority itself was of the view that as on the date of the agreement, there was a cloud on the vendor's title. The other partners in the firm to which the vendors had brought this, and their other properties as their capital contribution, were not parties to the agreement and could not have been compelled to divest themselves of their or their firm's rights in the property. The costs and risk of litigation that would follow from a transfer which would not bind them would have a material bearing on the value of what the petitioners could acquire in terms of that agreement. The power vested in the Authority under Chapter XX-C of the Act is a special power and a special jurisdiction....