Little Flower Congregation vs State of Kerala and The Executive Engineer

Pius C. Kuriakose, J.—The claimant is in appeal. Their land and building in Aluva village situated near to the pump junction in Aluva Municipal Town was acquired for the purpose of Ad-hoc Augmentation of Kochi Water Supply Scheme of the Kerala Water Authority. The Land Acquisition Officer awarded land value at the rate of Rs. 44,510/- per Are. Before the Reference Court the claimant produced Exts.A1 and A2 judgments. They relied mostly on Ext. A2 which was in respect of acquisition of land situated very near to the land under acquisition and acquired pursuant to the same notification itself. Ext. A2 property was treated by the Land Acquisition Officer as superior and he awarded Rs. 67,420/- per Are. Under Ext. A2 the court re- fixed the value at Rs. 95,759/- per Are. The Advocate Commissioner submitted Ext. C2 additional report by which it was reported that the property under acquisition and the property covered by Ext. A2 are comparable and that the property under acquisition is slightly superior. The court below did not rely on Ext. C2 observing that the Commissioner has not made a comparison of the acquired property with the property covered by Exts.A1 and A2. We are convinced on a reading of Exts.C1 and C2 that the above observation of the learned Subordinate Judge is incorrect.

Sri. V.M. Kurian the learned Counsel for the appellant submitted that to his knowledge Ext. A2 has become final. But Smt. R. Bindu, the learned Government Pleader took exception to the above submission. According to her, Ext. A2 has not become final. We accept the Government Pleader''s stand that Ext. A2 has not become final. But we notice that the property was situated very close to pump junction in Aluva, only 200 metres away from Aluva Perumbavoor road (KSRTC route).

Having taken into account the importance of the locality and the various judgments of this Court pertaining to acquisition of land at various points of time in and around Aluva Municipal Town, we are of the view that the enhancement of 35% granted by the learned Subordinate Judge over what was granted by the Land Acquisition is inadequate. On a better assessment of the evidence on record, in our opinion market value can be re-fixed at Rs. 80,000/- per Are. We re-fix the market value of the land under acquisition at Rs. 80,000/- per Are.

The appeal will stand allowed to the above extent. The appellant will be entitled for all statutory benefits admissible under Sections 23(2), 23(1A) and u/s 28 of the Land Acquisition Act on the total enhanced compensation to which they become eligible by virtue of this judgment. Parties are directed to suffer their respective costs.