JUDGMENT

Santosh Hegde, J.-Noticing a conflict between two 3-Judge Benches of this Court in the case of Special Deputy Collector & Anr. vs. Kurra Sambasiva Rao & Ors. (1997 (6) SCC 41) and Land Acquisition Officer & Mandal Revenue Officer vs. V. Narasaiah (2001 (3) SCC 530), another 3-Judge Bench of this Court on 31st of July, 2001 considered it appropriate to place C.A.No. 6986/99 for consideration by a larger Bench. It is in this background, the above appeal and other connected appeals are now before us.

2. In Kurra Sambasiva Rao s case (supra), this Court held that by introducing Section 51A in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter LA Act) the Legislature only facilitated the parties concerned to produce a certified copy of a sale transaction in evidence and nothing more. This is what the Court observed in the said case.

"Section 51-A only dispenses with the production of the original sale deed and directs to receive certified copy for the reason that parties to the sale transaction would be reluctant to part with the original sale deed since acquisition proceedings would take long time before award of the compensation attains finality and in the meanwhile the owner of the sa