The main legal point established in the judgment is the determination of compensation, valuation methods, and the inclusion of separate components of compensation in the market value of the land.

These appeals with Cross Objection are directed against common Judgment dated 22-4-2004 of the learned reference Court, Margao.

2. The common Judgment has decided two references made in two cases. L.A.C. No.230 of 1995 pertains to acquisition made pursuant to notification issued under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 published on Official Gazette dated 21-7-1991. L.A.C. No. 411 of 1995 pertains to acquisition made pursuant to notification issued under Section 4(1) of the same Act published on Gazette dated 28-1-1992.

3. Both notifications pertain to the acquisition of land for the construction of the new B. G. line of Konkan Railway. By virtue of first notification, three lands of the applicant (hereinafter referred to as such) were acquired, namely 1600 sq. meters from survey No.184/22 and 825 sq. meters of survey No.180/4, both being coconut garden and 100 sq. meters from survey No.157/3 which was a bharad land. By award dated 31-3-1994, the L.A.O. awarded market value of Rs.4/-per sq. meter for the said lands and Rs.70,600/- as fruit value and Rs.8,165.85 as wood value and in all Rs.78,765.85 of the trees. By the second acquisition, 3025 sq. meters were acquired from survey No.189/3. In this case also, the L.A.O. awarded Rs.4/-per sq. meter as the market value and Rs.1,78,925/- as fruit value and Rs.4,871.20 as wood value and in all Rs.1,83,796.20 of the trees. All the lands are situated in Poinguinim village of Canacona Taluka.

4. The applicant led common evidence. The Respondent did not lead any evidence. The applicant produced two sale deeds, one of the self same land i.e. of survey No.184/22 by which 806 sq. meters were sold by deed dated 1-7-1990 at the rate of Rs.33.50 per sq. meter to Dattu Naik who was examined as AW2. The applicants also produced sale deed dated 26-8-1994 of survey No.184/22 of the same village by which 300 sq. meters were sold at the rate of Rs.60/- per sq. meter.

5. The learned reference Court had, on a concession made by the Respondents, accepted the first sale deed dated 6-7-1990 as the best evidence to determine the compensation payable as the applicant was a party to the said sale deed and in this regard, the learned reference Court also placed reliance on the case of Special Deputy Collector and another v. Kurra Sambasiva Rao and others(AIR 1997 SC 2625) wherein it was held that the best evidence of the value of the property is the sale transaction in respect of the acquired land to which the claimant himself is the party. In other words, when evidence of sale is available of the very land acquired, one need not go beyond the land to find out its prices. The learned reference Court noted that one of the acquired lands in L.A.C. No.230/95 has another part of survey No.184/22. The learned reference Court also noted that survey No.184/22 was adjacent to survey No.189/3 which were the subject matters of L.A.C. No.230/95 and L.A.C. No.411/95, respectively. Survey No.180/4 and survey No.157/3 were located on the southern side of survey No. 184/22, and both the properties were separated by survey No.180/5 but all the aforesaid four survey numbers in both the cases were adjacent and close to survey No.184/22, and, therefore the learned reference Court again accepted the Respondents submission that the sale deed dated 6-7-1990 was the most comparable instance, being part of survey No.184/22 and of the same nature as the other three acquired lands. As regards the second sale deed, the learned reference Court noted that it was a post notification sale deed, considering the dates of notification as 27-6-1991 in the first case, and 9-4-1992 in the second case. The learned reference Court did not take into account the second sale deed relying on the case of Karan Singh and others v. Union of India ((1997) 8 SCC 186) further observing that the applicant had led no evidence to show that the price of the land in village Poinguinim had remained static, and, therefore there was no upw