JUDGMENT :

HEMANT GUPTA, J.

1. The landowners are in appeal aggrieved against the judgment passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Nagpur Bench on 17.07.2017 whereby the compensation for the land acquired was assessed as Rs. 56,500/- per hectare. The order of the Reference Court enhancing the amount of compensation to Rs. 1,95,853/- per hectare was set aside in the order impugned in the present appeal.

2. The land admeasuring 2.42 hectares of land was intended to be acquired in pursuance of the notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894¹ [The Act] published on 25.02.1999 for the purpose of resettlement of affected person from Lower Wardha submergence project.

3. The Special Land Acquisition Officer granted compensation at the rate of Rs. 56,500/- on 31.07.2000. The landowners aggrieved against the inadequate determination of the market value sought references under Section 18 of the Act. Before the learned Reference Court, five sale exemplars were relied upon, out of which Exh.34 and Exh.35 were excluded on the ground that such sale exemplars were afte