Market value determination must adhere to established guidelines and procedures, and unilateral fixation by authorities is invalid.

ORDER :

1. In these writ petitions a common challenge is made to the orders passed by the 2nd respondent dismissing the appeal filed by petitioners in W.P.No.28652 of 2022, who are also arrayed as respondents 5 to 7 in W.P.No.4060 of 2023, and thereby confirming the order passed by the 3rd respondent determining the market value of the properties which are subject matter of the exchange deed presented by the petitioners in the writ petitions for registration.

2. The brief facts leading to the filing of these writ petition are as follows:-

The petitioners in W.P.No.28652 of 2022 were the absolute owners of the land measuring an extent of 27 cents in S.No.1/1A1; 26 cents in S.No.1/1A1 and 46 cents in S.No.1/1A3, totally measuring an extent of 99 cents or thereabouts situate at Karapakkam Village, Sholinganallur Taluk, then Kancheepuram Distirct, now, Chennai District, having purchased the same through sale deed dated 28.09.1995 registered as Doc.No.4960 of 1995 on the file of the Sub Registrar, Adyar from one Natesan and others represented by their Agent-G.Mahan. The lands which were owned by the petitioners in W.P.No.28652 of 2022 are land locked and have no road access, as the lands are bounded by government poramboke lands and the larger extent of land owned by 5th respondent, who is the petitioner in the other writ petition in W.P.No.4060 of 2023, on the northern side of burial ground road, Karapakkam. The 5th respondent was owning lands measuring an extent of 15 cents in S.No.174/3A1, 31 cents out of 45 cents in S.No.174/3B, 31 cents out of 45 cents in S.No.174/3C, 11 cents in S.No.174/3D1 and 11 cents in S.No.1743/3D2, totally measuring about 99 cents or thereabouts. The lands owned by the 5th respondent are situated on the southern side of the burial ground of Karapakkam village and the same are not contiguous to their larger extent of property on which the 5th respondent is running an engineering college known as KCG College of Engineering. Therefore, both the petitioners and the 5th respondent in W.P.No.28562 of 2022 decided to exchange their respective lands for better enjoyment. Accordingly, they entered into a Deed of Exchange on 21.10.2021 which was registered as Doc.No.11594 of 2021 on the file of the 4th respondent. Before the execution of exchange deed, both of them made enquiries to get the market value guidelines of their properties. However, they were informed that no survey number wise market value guidelines were available for Karapakkam village and only streetwise guideline value are available in respect of all lands at Karapakkam village. On enquiry, they found that market value guidelines are fixed for nearby properties by street wise and there is no specific guideline value fixed for the subject-survey numbers. The street-wise market value guidelines as fixed by the departments are as under:-

Therefore, the petitioners valued their lands at Rs.1673/- per square feet and the entire property was valued at Rs.7,22,40,003/- . The exchange deed was presented b