The market value of land includes its potential for further beneficial use, and judgments not inter parties may be admissible to determine market value under certain circumstances and for limited purposes, such as showing probable market value in similar cases.

JUDGMENT :- The dispute, in this appeal, against an order of the learned' Additional District, Judge, Bilaspur, relates to the determination of the market value of land and non-fruit trees, belonging to the respondents, situated in village Kallar, which were acquired in connection with the construction of Bhakhra-Dam-Reservoir. The Collector had assessed compensation with respect to the land and trees. The award of the Collector was not accepted by the respondents. They filed objections against it. The objections were referred, for determination, to the Court.

2. The objections of the respondents, against the award, were that the market value of the land and trees had been assessed low and that the whole of the land acquired was kubli and its market value should have been assessed as such and that the Collector was in error in classifying the land into kubli, anderli awal, beharli awal, khoratar, banjer and gair-mumkin and evaluating each class at different rates.

3. The objections of the respondents were contested, on behalf of the appellant. It was pleaded that the land was correctly classified for purposes of evaluation and that the market value of the land and trees was correctly assessed.

4. The learned Additional District Judge, who had heard the reference, made at the instance of the respondents, held1 that the land, classified and evaluated, as anderli awal, beharli awal and kheratar, by the Collector, was potentially kuhli and its market value should have been assessed as such. He, also, held that the market value of the kuhli land and the trees was assessed low by the Collector. The learned Additional District Judge enhanced the market value of both the land and the trees and increased1 the compensation, payable to the respondents, by a sum of Rs. 5,758.36 p.

5. Aggrieved by the order of the learned Additional District Judge, the Collector has come up in appeal. The main grievance of the appellant is that the learned Additional District Judge was in error in enhancing the compensation for the land and the trees and in evaluating andarli awal, baharli awal and kheratar land as potentially kuhli land.

6. The respondents have filed cross-objections, claiming further enhancement in the market value of the land.

7. The first point, which requires decision in the appeal, is whether the learned Additional District fudge erred in assessing the market value of anderli awal, baharli awal and kheratar land as potentially kuhli land. It is well settled that the market value of the land does not merely mean, the value which the land has on account of the manner in which it is actually being used for the time being, but also its value in relation to further possibilities. Reference may be made to the observations of their Lordships of the Privy Council, in Atmaram Bhagwant Ghadgay v. Collector of Nagpur, AIR 1929 PC 92, to the effect that :

"An owner of land is entitled to the value to himself of the property in its actual condition at the time of expropriation with all its then existing advantages and with ail its further possibilities excluding only any advantages duo to the carrying out of the scheme for the purposes for which the property is being acquired."

8. Similarly, it was laid down in Mohini Mohan Banerjee v. Secy, of State, AIR 1921 Cal 193, that a Court, in assessing compensation under the Land Acquisition Act, must take into account, not only the present purpose to which the land is applied, but also any other more beneficial purpose to which in the course of events it might within a reasonable period be applied.

9. In the present case, the unrebutted evidence of Finnu Ram PW-1, Dalip Singh PW-2, Suram Singh PW-3 and Sidhu PW-4 was to the effect that the andarli awal and baharli awal land yielded three crops a year and that the kheratar land yielded three grass crops. These witnesses, further, deposed that all the land was level and was well served by a kuhl from Rakumani Kund, all the year round. The evidence of S