B.P.DHARMADHIKARI, J. - (1.) By this appeal filed under Section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act, the appellants land owners challenged the rejection of their application under Section 18 thereof by District Judge, Panaji Goa, vide Judgment and Order dated 15.1.2000.
(2.) The basic facts are not in dispute between the parties. The Notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act came to be published on 12.10.1982 and the area of about 4075 square metres has been acquired by State Government for construction of a road from Verem Church to Kegdiveli at Reis Magos. The properties of the appellants acquired are surveyed under survey No.95/1 (part) and 96/28 (part). The said lands were having coconut trees and also a nallah i.e. water drain. The Land Acquisition Officer in Award made on 11.5.1984 has granted compensation at the rate of Rs. 15/per square metre for the land of coconut garden and Rs.3/-per square metre for nallah and Rs. 998/-per coconut tree. It is not in dispute that land occupied by nallah was not more than 15 square metres and that the Land Acquisition Officer has not adopted income capitalization method for determining the market value. The appellants filed proceedings under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act which came to be registered under Land Acquisition Case No. 2/1995. They claim the compensation at the rate of Rs. 300/- per square metre for garden land and Rs. 3000/- per tree for coconut trees. They examined the appellant no.2 Ganesh V. N. Panvelkar as their first witness and one Cleusa Naik as their second witness. They relied upon Sale Deed at Exhibit 16 whereby they sold their own land i.e. Survey no.77 admeasuring an area of 17,495 square metres for Rs. 56,15,895/-to M/s Alcon Real Estate Pvt. Ltd. The State Government did not adduce any evidence. In this background, the reference Court by impugned order dismissed the application after holding that appellants could not establish the market value and also valuation of the coconut trees as claimed.
(3.) We have heard learned Advocate Shri S. Dessai for the appellants and learned Government Counsel Shri Salkar for the respondents.;