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Judgment
Pius C. Kuriakose, J.—The claimants are the appellants. Their land with a small building in Changanacherry village was acquired pursuant to Section 4(1) notification published on 18/05/05 for the purpose of upgradation of the main central road. The Land Acquisition Officer awarded land value at the rate of Rs. 1,60,619/- per Are. For the building he awarded a total compensation of Rs. 29,617/- per Are. The Reference Court under the impugned judgment upheld the appellants'' claim for enhanced compensation towards the building value in full. This appeal is confined to their claim for land value. Reference Court did not award any enhancement in land value. The Reference Court rightly took the view that the documents produced by the appellants cannot be relied on as one of them is a post notification document and the other is fair value order passed by the Government. We have heard the submissions of Sri. V.N. Sankarjee, the learned counsel for the appellants and Sri. C.R. Syamkumar, the learned Senior Government Pleader. According to Sri. Sankarjee, the land value approved by the Reference Court is too low. According to Sri. C.R. Syamkumar, in the absence of evidence, the learned Subordinate Judge cannot be blamed for having confirmed the award of the Land Acquisition Officer.
Having considered the rival submissions addressed and having kept in mind other judgments of this Court pertaining to acquisition of land in Changanacherry village for other purposes, we are of the view that the market value of the land under acquisition can be re-fixed at Rs. 2,57,000/- per Are. We find that in the present appeal the claim is limited to Rs. 2,47,000/- per Are only. Under the above circumstances, we allow the appeal in full. The appellants 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 land value re-fixed by this judgment. Parties are directed to suffer their respective costs. Decree copy will be issued to the appellants only after ensuring that the full court fee payable on the appeal memorandum is remitted by the appellants.