IMPORTANT POINTS
There is no provision to grant any addition towards appreciation in value of land in same year.
Relevant date for determination of market value is the date of notification u/s 4(1) i.e., date of gazette notification.

Judgment :-

R.V. RAVEENDRAN, J.

These appeals by the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (for short KMDA) and the State of West Bengal (`State' for short) relate to determination of compensation for acquisitio of the following three lands for East Calcutta Area Development Project, falling under Mouza Madurdaha, (JL No.12), District 24 Parganas (South) within the limits of Kolkata Municipa Corporation :

2. The said lands belonging to the first respondent along with surrounding lands were requisitioned by the State Government under section 3(1) of the West Bengal Land (Requisition & Acquisition) Act, 1948 [for short `WB Requisition Act'] on 27.4.1978. The possession of the land was taken by the Collector in pursuance of such requisition, o 8.5.1978, 16.7.1979 and 16.9.1979. In anticipation of the acquisition, the value of the land wa assessed under section 8B of the said Act and 80% of the estimated compensation was paid to the first respondent in or about 1979. On 7.4.1987, the Collector issued a notification unde section 4(1a) of the said Act, to acquire the land, but did not make an award under section 7 o the said Act. WB Requisition Act was a temporary Act and remained in force only ti 31.3.1997. The Land Acquisition Act 1894 (`LA Act' for short) was amended by West Benga Act 7 of 1997 (with effect from 2.5.1997) inserting sub-sections (3A) and (3B) in section 9 of LA Act whereby it was provided that in regard to lands possession of which had been taken o requisition under the WB Requisition Act, the proceedings initiated under the WB Requisitio Act would stand converted to proceedings under LA Act upon issuance of appropriate notice Such notice was issued on 10.12.1997 and the acquisition proceedings under the WB Requisition Act were converted into acquisition proceedings under the LA Act. But as no award was made within a period of two years, the said acquisition lapsed under section 11A of LA Act. Therefore, fresh acquisition proceedings were initiated by issue of a notification dated 13.9.2000 under section 4(1) of the LA Act (Gazetted on 13.9.2000 and thereafter published i the newspapers and pubic notice of the substance of notification was notified in the locality o 16.11.2000) followed by a notification dated 27.11.2000 issued under section 6 of the LA Ac (gazetted on 28.11.2000).

3. The Collector made an award dated 13.12.2001 determining the market value of the acquired lands as ` 2386 per cottah for sali land and ` 1193 per cottah for beel land. For thi purpose, the Collector took the average of the value disclosed by the sale of small plot bearing Dag Nos. 417, 417 and 455 under deeds dated 15.1.1982, 20.1.1982 and 15.2.1982 and by providing appreciation at the rate of 5% per year from 1982 to 2000, arrived at the value of ` 144,353/- per acre or ` 2386/- per cottah for sali land and ` 1193/- per cottah (half o the value of sali land) as the value of beel land. Feeling aggrieved, the first respondent sough reference to civil court claiming enhancement in regard to the three lands. The three references were registered as LA Nos.47, 77 and 78 of 2003.

4. The first respondent examined an expert valuer T.C.Roy as RCW-1 and examined himse as RCW-2. The report of the expert with its annexures was marked as Ex. 1 and Ex. 1/A and the map of Mouza Madurdaha was produced as Ex.2. The first respondent produced and relied upon the following five sale deeds (Ex.7 to 11) to prove the market value :

On behalf of the State Government represented by the Collector, the award was marked a Ex.A, two sale deeds of the year 1988 relied upon by the Collector for determining the marke value were marked as Ex.B and B/1, the determination of land value by the Collector as Ex.C calculation-sheet for payment of 80% ad hoc compensation as Ex.D and an area map as Ex.E KMDA did not lead any evidence.

5. The Expert Valuer assessed the value of the acquired lands with reference to the sale o Sali plot No.192 Mouza Madurdaha, Ward No.108,