1968 Supreme(Ker) 198
P.T.RAMAN NAYAR, V.R.KRISHNA IYER
State of Kerala – Appellant
Versus
Mariamma Abraham – Respondent
Advocates:
Advocate General, for Appellant (in all appeals); S. Narayanan Potti, Joseph Vithayathil, George Vadakkel, Varghese Kalliath and T.L. Viswanatha Iyer (in Nos. 421 and 435 of 1963); Joseph Vithayathil, George Vadakkel Varghese Kalliath and T.L. Viswanatha Iyer, (in Nos. 423, 425, 426 of 1963); Joseph Vithayathil, George Vadakkel, and T.L. Viswanatha Iyer, (in No. 427 of 1963) and V.K.K. Menon, Joseph Vithavathil, George Vadakkel, Varghese Kalliath and T.L. Viswanatha Iyer, (in No. 436 of 1963), for Respondents.
RAMAN NAYAR J. :- These appeals and cross-objections arise out of proceedings taken under the provisions of the (Travancore) Land Acquisition Act (Act XI of 1089) for the acquisition of 1.72 acres of double-crop wet land and 56.54 acres of dry land (or garden land as it has been called) for the Kozha Agricultural Research Farm in the Kottayam District. The lands, it would appear, are contiguous lands lying in one block. The Collector made seven separate awards by which he granted a total compensation of Rs. 1,16,000/- (rounded off to the nearest thousand) exclusive of the 15% solatium and interest. Not content with this, the landowners (or plaintiffs as they have been called by the Court below in accordance with the instructions in the old Travancore Civil Courts Guide, the State Government being called the defendant) asked for a reference to Court under Section 18 of the Act. There were accordingly seven separate references all of which were heard together, the evidence being recorded in L. A. R. No. 94 of 1960 (the subject-matter of A. S. No. 436 of 1963) which was treated as the main case. The Court awarded additional compensation totalling Rs. 4,93,000/- inclusive of solatium a
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