The market value of the acquired land can be determined by considering evidence such as sale deeds and witness testimonies, and making reasonable deductions for developmental costs.

JUDGMENT :

1. This appeal filed under section 52 of the Jammu and Kashmir Land Acquisition Act, 1990 (for short ‘the Act’) arises out of the judgment/award dated 31.03.2016 passed by the court of learned Principal District Judge, Bhadarwah (hereinafter to be referred as ‘the reference court’) in reference, titled, “Hans Raj and others vs Collector, Bhaderwah and Anr” bearing file No. 10/Reference, whereby the learned Reference Court has enhanced the compensation payable by the appellants to the respondents/owners for the land acquired by the appellants.

2. The award has been impugned by the appellants on the following grounds:

a) That without there being any cogent evidence on record, the learned reference court has enhanced the compensation for the land acquired by the appellants, only on the basis of the sole witness, namely, Mohd. Ibrahim, examined by the respondents.

b) That the market rate of the small piece of land cannot be taken into consideration for determining the market rate for big chunk of land.

3. Mr. S. S. Nanda, learned Sr. AAG appearing for the appellants argued that the learned reference court has fallen in grave error of law while enhancing the compensation as the sale exemplar brought on record by the respondents was only in respect of small piece of land whereas the appellants had acquired the big chunk of land. He has placed reliance upon the judgment of this Court in case, titled, ‘Dy. Chief Engineer Construction N. R. Reasi vs Makhna Singh and others’ passed in MA No.570 of 2014 decided on 14.07.2023.

4. Per contra, Mr.Vivek Sharma and Mr. N. A. Choudhary, learned counsels appearing for the respondents argued that the learned reference court has rightly passed the award on the basis of the evidence led by the respondents, as such, there is no illegality in the award passed by the reference court. Mr. Vivek Sharma, relied upon the judgment passed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court in “State of Madhya Pradesh v. Radheshyam & Ors.”

5. Heard and perused the record.

6. Briefly stated the facts necessary for the adjudication of this appeal are that the land measuring 50 kanals and 16 marlas was acquired by the appellants for construction of a new bus stand in village, Nagar and Kotli, Tehsil Bhaderwah and the final award was passed on 13.03.2008 by the appellant No. 2. The notifications under section-4 of the Act were issued on 07.03.2005, 17.09.2005 and 16.10.2006 for the land measuring 34 kanals and 4½ marlas, 1 kanal and 9½ marlas and 13 kanals and 2 marlas respectively. Thereafter, notification under section-6 of the Act was issued by the Government on 20.07.2007. As per the final award dated 13.03.2008, the following rates for payment of compensation to the owners were approved:

7. The respondents feeling dissatisfied with the rate of compensation awarded in their favour, approached the appellant No. 2 for making reference for proper assessment of the compensation. The respondents filed their respective claims separately. The reference was made to the Reference Court and the appellants filed their response separately to the claims of the respondents and stated that the compensation has been assessed on the basis of rates of the land for last three years situated at villages Kotli and Nagar, Tehsil Bhaderwah and the respondents herein have not shown any justification for enhancement of the compensation. On the basis of the pleadings of the parties, the following issues were framed by the learned reference court:

i. “Whether the compensation assessed by the Collector Land Acquisition Bhaderwah w.r.t. the land of the applicants acquired for construction of new Bus Stand Bhaderwah vide award dated 13.03