SWATANTER KUMAR, J. - (1.) LEAVE granted in SLP (C) No.9736 of 2004.
(2.) APPLICATION for impleadment in Civil Appeal No.5616 of 2004 is allowed. By this judgment, we will dispose of the three Civil Appeals being Civil Appeal Nos.5616, 5628 and 5732 of 2004 and a Civil Appeal arising out of Special Leave Petition (C) No.9736 of 2004 as they arise from a common judgment with somewhat similar facts. For the purposes of brevity and to avoid repetition, we would be referring to the facts in Civil Appeal No.5616 of 2004. A notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short, 'the Act') was issued by the Industries Department of the State of Tamil Nadu on 23.01.1985 to acquire land in the Revenue Estate of village Kadaperi, Hamlet of Tambaram, Tambaram Taluk within the municipal limits of the city including the land admeasuring 7.06 acres belonging to the appellant. This notification came to be issued in furtherance of the scheme, which was sanctioned by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) on 3/4/1984 and a total of 261.42 acres of land was acquired for setting up the Madras Export Processing Zone (MEPZ). The entire land, including dry and wet lands, was sought to be acquired as a compact block for the project in question. In response to the publication of the notification, the interested persons filed objections in terms of Section 5A of the Act which were considered by the Land Acquisition Officer (for short, the LAO') and declaration under Section 6 of the Act was issued on 23.04.1986. After notice to the interested persons/owners, Award No. 3/86 was made and published by the LAO on 28.11.1986. The LAO awarded compensation at the rate of Rs. 145/- per cent for an extent of 64 cents and Rs. 110 for 6.42 acres of another kind of land and also awarded compensation at different rates for the superstructures raised by the appellants on their respective lands. The possession of the land was taken on 03.02.1987. The compensation was received by the appellants under protest on 4/7/1987 and they preferred references under Section 18 of the Act. "According to the appellants, the market price of the land in question was between Rs. 7,000.00 and Rs. 8,000/- per cent in the years 1983-84. In 1985-86 the land was sold at the rate of Rs. 45,000.00 to Rs. 50,000.00 per ground. In this appeal, the appellants had claimed compensation at that rate. They also" stated that they had raised nearly 160 coconut trees and dug a big well fitted with electric motor by incurring a cost of Rs.1.5 lakh on the land in question. We may notice that various appellants had raised different claims on these grounds. The Collector, as already noticed, had awarded compensation uniformly at the rates mentioned supra while awarding compensation separately for the well, trees, etc."
(3.) THE parties led evidence before the Reference Court and the Reference Court, vide its judgment dated 09.12.1988, enhanced the compensation payable to the claimants to Rs.3,600/- per cent as agricultural land by relying upon Exhibits A1, A4 and A5. THE Reference Court granted the following relief to the claimants: "1) THE valuation fixed by the lands acquired at Rs.110/- and Rs.145/- per cent, by the Land Acquisition Officer has been raised and a fresh valuation at Rs.3,600/- per cent is fixed for the entire area of the acquired lands; 2) THE valuation at Rs.2,675/- per coconut tree, fixed by the Land Acquisition Tahsildar is held to be correct and confirmed; 3) THE valuation for the well and the pump- set made by the Land Acquisition Tahsildar at Rs.44,487/- has been enhanced to Rs. 1,76,862/- and fixed accordingly; 4) Further it is ordered that the claimant should be paid 30% solatium for the above amounts and interest at the rate of 12% from 23.1.1985 to 28.11.1986 and further 9% interest from 3.2.1987 to 2.2.1988. It is ordered that the sum of Rs. 1,88,887.85 fixed as compensation by the Land Acquisition Tahsildar for the land, trees, well and pump- set should be deducted from the above amount. It is further ordered that the claimant is entitled to the interest at the rate of 15% per annum for the difference amount of compensation from 3.2.1988 till date of deposit of the compensation into Court." Aggrieved by the said judgment of the Reference Court, the Government, through the LAO, filed an appeal before the High Court challenging the correctness of the same. The High Court, vide its judgment dated 05.02.2001, declined to accept the reasoning recorded by the Reference Court in its different judgments under appeal and reduced the compensation payable to the claimants at the rate of Rs. 2018/- per cent. Thus, the High Court, while partially accepting the appeal of the State, granted the following relief: "Therefore, considering the fact the lands under acquisition are not developed at all, whereas, under adjoining lands are developed, deduction at the rate of 40% for prescribing the correct value by the learned Judge cannot be held to be erroneous. Therefore, we are of the considered view that the market value of the acquired lands can be determined by adopting the value as per Ex.A4, i.e. Rs.3,363/-, and after a deduction of 40% towards development charges, the market value will be Rs.2,018/- per cent. The claimant is entitled to compensation for the 7.06 acres of acquired lands at this rate, i.e., 14,24,708/-." ;