The Court's jurisdiction to award compensation in a land acquisition reference is limited to the amount claimed by the owner in their counter-statement, as per Section 25 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

SADASIVAM, J. :- The State of Madras represented by the Special Tahsildar and Land Acquisition Officer, Town Planning Scheme, Coimbatore, has preferred these appeals against the common order passed by the learned First Additional Subordinate Judge, Coimbatore, on C.C. Nos. 141 to 147 of 1960, on references made under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') by the Special Tahsildar and Land Acquisition Officer, Town Planning Scheme, Coimbatore. The lands concerned in these cases form one continuous block and they are situate in an important, busy and well-developed residential locality in Power House Road and the object of the acquisition was to widen the existing 75-feet broad road into a 100-feet road. There were buildings only in the lands concerned in Appeals Nos. 391 and 386 of 1962. The tenant who had put up a construction on the land concerned in Appeal No. 386 of 1962 has received compensation for the superstructure. The claim of the owner of that land has rightly been considered only on the same footing as the claim of the owners of the other lands on which there were no buildings.

2. The Land Acquisition Officer has treated the sites acquired as building sites for the purpose of valuation. The Notification under S. 4 (1) of the Act was made on 25-8-1959. The Land Acquisition Officer relied on two sale deeds, a registration copy of one of which alone has been marked as Exhibit B-3 in this case and valued the lands as on the date of the notification at 72 p. per square foot on the strength of the said sale deeds. The learned First Additional Subordinate Judge has, on a consideration of the oral and documentary evidence in the case, fixed the value of the land as on the date of the said notification at Rs. 1,000 per cent or Rs. 2.30 per square foot. He has considered this aspect of the case in detail in paragraphs 11 to 14 of his common order and we see no sufficient ground to differ from him on the question of the valuation of the land.

3. The registration copy of the sale deed marked as Ex. B-3 in the case and the other sale deed relied on by the Land Acquisition Officer relate to portions of land in T.S. No. 1268 situate at a distance of a furlong from the acquired sites and the notification in this case was made much later on 25-8-1959. Thus, the sale price mentioned in Ex. B-3 in respect of a land at a distance of a furlong and at a very much earlier period cannot afford a real guidance to value the acquired sites as on the date of the notification. On 14-3-1959, that is much earlier to the notification in this case, an Award 1 of 1959 was passed by the Special Tahsildar, Coimbatore, a copy of which has been marked as Ex. A-1. The award relates to the acquisition of T.S. Nos. 1143 and 1144 situate in No. 3 Street, Gandhipuram. T.S. Nos. 1143 and 1144 are much nearer to the acquired sites than T.S. No. 1268. It is clear from Ex. A-l that the sites have been acquired at the rate of Rs. 1.34p. per sq. ft. The valuation adopted in Ex. A-l is based on a sale deed in respect of a land in T.S. No. 1066 dated 28-8-1958, that is, nearly a year prior to the notification under S. 4 (1) of the Act in this case.

4. The claimants rely on 3 sale deeds, Exs. A-2 to A-4. Exhibit A-3 dated 9-11-1957 is a sale deed in respect of an extent of 1½ cents of land in T.S.No. 1125 which is almost adjacent to the land concerned in Appeal No. 386 of 1962 and it abuts the Power House Road. The sale price of Rs. 1,000 in that document works out to Rs. 666.66 per cent, R.W. 1 Stanis Soundararaja Udayar, Special Tahsildar and Land Acquisition Officer, admitted that the market price of the sites in the locality was more in 1959 and 1960 than in 1957 and 1958. Exhibits A-2 and A-4 are registration copies of sale deeds executed on 9-3-1960 and 10-02-1960 in respect of 5½ and 7 cents of lands in T.S. Nos. 1259 and 1124 respectively, for Rs. 7,500 each. The value of one cent of land works out to Rs. 1,363.62