Compensation for acquired land can include statutory cess deductions as per the Act, confirming the legality of such levies against previous administrative costs.

JUDGMENT :

Ashutosh Kumar, CJ.

We have heard Mr. C. Lalramzuava, learned Senior Advocate, assisted by Mr. S. Lalbuatsaiha, learned Advocate for the appellants/MADC in all these appeals and Ms. D.T. Azyu, learned Advocate for the respondent Nos.1 to 7 in Writ Appeal No.2/2025; for the respondent Nos.1 to 74 in Writ Appeal No.3/2025 and for the respondent Nos.1 to 51 in Writ Appeal No.4/2025.

2. All these writ appeals have been taken up together and are being disposed off by this common judgment.

3. These appeals have been filed on a short question, namely, whether deduction of 10% cess from the compensation paid to the respondents for the acquired land is justified?

4. The learned Single Judge has held that once the administrative cost @ 2.5% of the total value of the land has already been realized from the respondents, 10% cess could not have been levied on the respondents/landholders. That apart, it was held that there is nothing in the Act or the Rules governing the field, which would justify deduction of cess from the compensation, as in any circumstance, it is only deductible from the value of the land, which is not akin to compensation.

5. To state the facts in short for a proper understanding of these appeals, it is stated that the respondents were owners of the land through which a road was constructed but the respondents were not paid any compensation. They approached this Court vide WP(C) No.160/2016 and WP(C) No.224/2016, wherein a direction was issued to the appellants herein to conduct a spot verification to find out whether the road had been constructed through the land of the respondents and if it were, to prepare a supplementary award for acquisition of land of the respondents.

6. Though pursuant to the orders, verification was done and assessment was made but it was only with respect to a small portion of the road which was constructed, i.e. only for 20 Kms, and, therefore, the names of the respondents did not figure in that assessment.

7. The respondents, therefore, had again filed a writ petition before this Court vide WP(C) No.53/2017, which was decided on 02.05.2018 directing the appellants herein to invoke the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation & Resettlement Act, 2013 (hereinafter to be referred as the “Act of 2013”) to assess the compensation payable to the respondents herein and if the appellants wanted to vacate the land, to pay compensation to the respondents for the damages within a time-frame.

Pursuant thereto, the award was prepared but 10% of the cost of the land was deducted towards cess.

8. The respondents challenged the afore-noted deduction along with other grievances which were allowed but the present appeals only question the decision of the learned Single Judge in not sustaining the deduction of 10% of the cost of the land towards cess on twin grounds of there being no provision for deduction from the compensation of the land, which might not always be akin to the cost of the land, and that such recoverable cess was only for the purposes of administrative expenses which had already been taken care of by deducting 2.5% of the compensation amount by way of administrative charges, which fact is amply demonstrated by the summary of the award, kept at Page 63 of Writ Appeal No.2/2025.

9. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have also examined the relevant provisions of the Mara Autonomous District Council (Land and Revenue) Act, 2018 (hereinafter to be referred as the “Act of 2018”) in detail.

Sections 22 & 23 of the afore-noted Act of 2018 is being extracted herein for the sake of completeness:-

“22.(1) No land survey, spot verification and measurement over any land a