In a reference under section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act in the matter of awards of compensation for the acquisition of certain lands in Velayudanpattu village in the South Arcot district, the learned Subordinate Judge of Cuddalore set aside the award of the Land Acquisition Officer and remitted the matter for passing a revised award. This the learned Subordinate Judge did as he found that the basis of the valuation adopted by the Officer was under Act XI of 1953 which has since been declared to be unconstitutional. The State has preferred the appeals against the order of remittal on the ground that the lower Court had no jurisction to set aside the awards and remit the same for passing revised awards. The Office of the Registrar has taken objection to the maintainability of the appeals and has referred the matter to Court.

Section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act under which the appeals are sought to be filed allows an appeal in any proceedings under the Act to the High Court from the award or from any part of the award. There is no definition in the Act of the term award’ but in Ramachandra Rao v. Ramachandra Rao1, the Privy Council observed at page 329 that

Under the Land