The main legal point established in the judgment is the determination of market value for acquired lands, considering factors such as potential development, prevailing market prices, and valuation of wells, in accordance with legal principles established in various Supreme Court cases.

JUDGMENT :

D.H. WAGHELA, J.

1. This group of appeals and the cross-objections filed therein arise from the common judgment and order in several land reference cases, the main case being Land Reference Case No. 685 of 1988, whereby additional compensation was awarded for the lands acquired from the adjoining survey numbers within the municipal limits of Gondal town. The lands were acquired for the purpose of construction of quarters for State Reserve Police. The relevant notification under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short "the Act") was published on 30.4.1981 and 23.7.1981 and the notification under section 6 of the Act was published on 24.4.1984. The Land Acquisition Officer made common award dated 3.4.1986 awarding compensation at the rates varying from Rs. 7.50 to Rs. 11.00 per sq. mtr. for different parcels of land covered by eleven different cases. Upon references being preferred under section 18 of the Act, the Court has, by the impugned judgment, awarded compensation at the rates of Rs. 65/- and Rs. 75/- with deduction of 1/3rd amount.

2. It is the case of the claimants that the compensation awarded to them was inadequate and the prevailing market prices of the lands were not properly determined insofar as the potentiality, fertility, price of the surrounding lands and the instances of sale of comparable lands were not properly taken into consideration. The Court has, in the impugned judgment, relied upon the documents at Exs.23, 24 and 25 as also the documents at Exs.36, 37 and 38 relating to the lands bearing survey No. 112 which was acquired as the basis for fixing the market price at about Rs. 65/- to Rs. 75/- per sq. mtr. The Court observed:

“It is an established principle of law that the market price of the lands are increasing day by day and this well-founded factual assumption could be rebutted only by adducing satisfactory evidence to the contrary. The Court can take into consideration the purpose for which the land is acquired and for which the land is being used in future.”

It is held that the lands bearing survey Nos. 110, 109, 104 and 103 are situated at some distance from the land bearing survey No. 112, but keeping in mind the increasing market price of the land and fast development, it can be said that other land would be developed in future. Since upon conversion of the land to non-agricultural use one-third of the land was likely to be lost for the purpose of public use in future, one-third deduction was ordered from the market price. The only other aspect in controversy is regarding separate compensation at Rs. 10,000/- awarded for each well. It is noted in the impugned judgment that the area of the acquired land is not fully developed, that the claim of Rs. 150/- per sq. mtr. was not established, that sufficient deductions should be made in fixing proper market price of the large parcels of land, that the lands are situated after kharaba (waste) land situated towards northern side of the land bearing survey No. 1 (sic) and that most of the lands were situated in an interior area behind the existing S.R.P. quarters.

3. It was submitted by the learned Advocate General, appearing for the appellant-State, that the sale instances of small plots of the same land evidenced by Exs.36, 37 and 38, which were relied upon for fixing the market price, were in fact agreements to sale executed just before the notification under section 4 of the Act and were apparently created for the purpose of showing higher market price of the lands. He submitted that even as the lands were within the municipal limits of Gondal, they were agricultural lands far from the main area and main roads of the town. That the residential area near the lands in question was a backward area. It was also submitted that the other transactions of sale relied upon by the claimants were in respect of small plots of developed societies and the sale deeds or agreements to sale in respect of the plots of the same land under acquisitio