The main legal point established in the judgment is the application of principles for making appropriate deductions from the value of the small extent of land and the admissibility of evidence for valuation purposes.

C.S. Rajan, J.

An extent of 6.83.44 hectares of land was acquired for M.V.I. Project. S.3(1) notification was issued on 10.10.1978. The award was passed on 23.7.1980. The property was taken possession on 30.7.1980. The Land Acquisition Court fixed land value at the rate of Rs.. 432/- per Are. Originally the Land Acquisition Court calculated enhanced compensation on capitalised value which was set aside by this Court.

2. The evidence consists of Exts. Al, A2 and A3 documents and the oral testimony of AWs 1 to 5. Ext. A1 is a document dated 17.5.1978. By the above document 40 cents of property was sold for Rs. 40,000/- (Rs. 1,000/- per cent). Ext. A2 document is dated 26.9.1978. In the above document the consideration was Rs. 30,000/- for 22 cents. The value of the property is Rs. 1363/- per cent. Ext. A3 is a document dated 15.7.1968 by which 41/2 cents was sold for Rs. 45,000/- (Rs. 1,000/- per cent). Ext. A1 property is situated in Muttom Junction. Exts. A2 and A3 properties are situated before Muttom Junction viz., Muttom-Karimkunnam road. The acquired property is near to the Thodupuzha-Moolamattom road. It is situated 23 metres away from the main road. There is a PWD road connecting across the acquired property. The properties covered by Exts. A1 to A3 are situated about 3 to 4 Kms. away from the acquired property. The Land Acquisition Court did not accept the market value shown in Exts. A1 to A3 sale deeds as the basis for calculating the value of the acquired property.

3. AW 5 who is a retired Executive Engineer inspected the acquired property and made a comparative study of the acquired property with those covered by Exts. A1 to A3. He filed Ext, C2 report before the Court. According to Ext. C2 report the acquired property i s approachable from Thodupuzha town. The road to the left in Thodupuzha-Palai road just by the side of the bus stand junction leads to the property, At about 5 kms. from this junction in Thodupuzha-Moolamattom road, the vast rubber estate belonging to the company starts. By the side of the main entry to this factory from the main road, Plantation-Illicharry road starts and this road connects Thodupuzha-Moolamattom road and Thodupuzha-Palai-Kottayam road. This road crosses the left bank high level main canal of Malankara Dam attached to Moovattupuzha Valley Irrigation Project. According to the Commission report, the property covered by Exts. A1 and A2 are located on the right side of Muttam-Karimkunnam road just before Muttam Junction. This property is having road frontage to the main road. Ext. A3 is located by the side of Muttom Junction, The road was not having any development as it is having today, at the time of the registration of the document in 1968. The Commissioner was further of opinion that considering the comparative importance, both commercial and residential, between the property acquired and the properties covered by Exts. A1 to A3, the acquired property has got equal importance with the properties mentioned above.

4. It must be remembered that the properties covered by Exts. A1 to A3 are small plots of land. The acquired property is having vast extent. The Supreme Court has evolved the principle to be considered in determining the value of the property in such circumstances. In the ruling reported in Kummari Veeraiah v. State of A.P. (1995) 4 SCC 136, the Supreme Court considered the above question in the following words:

"A willing buyer would not offer the same price when a large extent of land is offered for sale in an open market on free bargain either in one lot or different lots, in comparison with small piece of land. In case it was found that the sale deeds of small extent of the land are genuine and the acquired land possessed of the same or similar special advantageous features, then reasonable price is required to be determined by giving suitable deduction depending upon the extent of land covered by the sale transaction and the acquired land. When a large extent of