JUDGMENT

Shivaraj V. Patil, J.-Pursuant to the Notification issued under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short the Act ) an extent of 16.81 acres of land comprised in Khasra Nos. 870, 871, 872, 973 and 1623/873 was acquired. The Land Acquisition Officer, considering the appellant as the owner, passed Award fixing the market value of the land acquired at the rate of Rs. 450/- per acre and awarded a sum of Rs. 15,307.58 paise as compensation. Not being satisfied with the amount of compensation, so awarded, the appellant sought for reference under Section 18 of the Act for enhancement of compensation claiming a sum of Rs. 32,91,771.50. The Reference Court accepted the Award made by the Land Acquisition Officer holding that the compensation awarded was adequate. Consequently, it rejected the reference. Aggrieved by the order of the Reference Court the appellant filed First Appeal No. 82 of 1969 in the High Court. The High Court allowed the appeal, set aside the order of Reference Court and remanded the matter to it to decide the reference afresh. The learned District Judge (Reference Court) framed an additional issue as to what was the market value of the land acqui