JUDGMENT

M.B.SHAH, J.

(1) LEAVE granted.

(2) BEING aggrieved and dissatisfied by the judgment and order dated 7.6.2000 passed by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in appeal nos. 2901/99. 3078/ 99 and 7/2000, the land acquisition officer (revenue divisional officer), Nalgonda, Andhra Pradesh has filed these appeals.

(3) BY the impugned judgment and order, the High Court fixed the compensation of the land under acquisition @ Rs. 2,25,000/- per acre by relying upon exhibit A-10, which relates to the fixation of rate of compensation for survey no. 367 for which notification under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) for acquiring the land was issued on 29.8.1980.

(4) IT has been contended by the learned counsel for the appellant that impugned order, on the face of it, is illegal and erroneous because the court ought to have taken into consideration the fact that the relevant date for fixing the market price in the present case was 7.7.1977 i.e. the date of notification under section 4(1) of the Act for acquiring the land for the purpose of constructing a bus stand and bus depot, in village Bechirag Madharam, Suryapet Taluk, district Nalgonda. For this purpose, learned counsel for the appellant referred to the sale-deeds produced by the claimants for fixing market price of the land under acquisition and submitted that the market price fixed by the High Court is totally erroneous and unjustified one.

(5) CLAIMANTS have produced on record following sale-deeds:-

1. Exhibit A-7, sale-deed dated 15.2.1974 by which 20 gunthas of land out of survey no. 263 was sold @ Rs. 1000.00 per guntha.

2. Exhibit A-4 sale-deed dated 11.12.1975 by which 5 gunthas and 6 sq. yards of land out of survey no. 263 was sold @ Rs. 3500.00 per guntha. Learned counsel for the respondents after referring to the copy of the sale-deed and the evidence, submitted that there is apparent mistake in the judgment of the High Court in mentioning rate per guntha at Rs. 2500/- instead of Rs. 3500.00.

Relying upon the said submission, we have accepted the said figure of Rs. 3500.00

(3) EXHIBIT A-5 copy of sale-deed dated 13.9.1977 by which 6 gunthas of transfer of land out of survey no. 263 was sold for a consideration of Rs. 20000.00

(4) EXHIBIT A-6 which is a sale-deed dated 30.12.1978 by which 2 gunthas of land out of survey no. 262 was sold @ Rs. 4500.00 per guntha.

(6) IN our view, had the High Court applied its mind and considered the sale- deeds relied upon by the claimants, it would not have fixed the compensation @ Rs. 2,25,000.00 per acre, solely on the basis of exhibit A-10 for which, notification under section 4 was issued on 29.8.1980. It appears that the High Court has not given any importance to the fact that notification under section 4 in the present case was issued on 7.7.1977 i.e. before three years from the date of notification which was issued in subsequent land acquisition proceedings. This would also mean that after the project of acquiring the land for the purpose of constructing a bus-stand and bus depot, there was increase in the price of the land in the village. In our view, in this set of circumstances, there was no reason in not relying upon the sale-deeds of some portions of the land under acquisition on various dates. Under the acquisition in question, some portions of land of survey nos. 263, 264 and 265 are acquired, therefore, sale-deed pertaining to portion of land of survey no. 263 would be most relevant piece of evidence for fixing the market price of the land. In our view, relevant sale deed dated 11.12.1975 (exhibit 4) would reflect the market price of the acquired land.

(7) LEARNED counsel for the appellant however, submitted that the land which was transferred by exhibit A-4 was only the 5 gunthas of land whereas the land which is acquired is 14 acres 32 gunthas. As against this, the learned counsel for the claiman