The court reaffirmed that compensation for acquired land must reflect fair market value, taking into account adequate comparable sales while establishing that evidence must support any deductions for development costs.

JUDGMENT :

1. The appellant in these appeals is the State. All these Appeal Suits arise out of the common judgement dated 26.09.2022 and individual decree (s) passed by the Land Acquisition Tribunal (Principal Subordinate Jude) at Kancheepuram [for short “the Tribunal”] in L.A.O.P.No.1062 of 2008 and batch of cases enhancing the compensation to Rs.2,700/- per cent from Rs.300/- per cent fixed by the LAO for the land(s) acquired from the land owner(s).

2. The appellant in these appeal suits is the Referring Officer-Special Tahsildar (LA), TACID, Oragadam Scheme, Irungattukottai, Kanchipuram District. The private respondent(s) are claimants and the Managing Director, SIPCOT TACID Division, the official respondent is the requisitioning body.

3. For the sake of convenience and for easy reference, the appellant in these appeals will be referred to as “the LAO” while the private respondent(s) will be referred to as the claimants and the official respondent will be referred to as the requisitioning body wherever the context so requires.

4. The brief facts leading to the filing of the present Appeal Suits in common are as follows:-

(a) Each of the claimant(s) either individually or jointly owned/possessed varying extents of land at various survey numbers located in Panapakkam village, Sriperumbudur Taluk, Kanchipuram District.

(b) A total extent of 23.85.5 Hectares of land in the said village were proposed to be acquired by the State under the LAND ACQUISITION ACT , 1894 (for short, “the LA Act, 1894”) at the instance of State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) for setting up of Industrial Development Complex by the SIPCOT and for setting up of Special Economic Zones by TACID.

(c) For the purpose of acquisition of lands, notifications under Section 4(1) of the LA Act, 1894 were issued in the Tamil Nadu Gazette in the instant cases on 14.12.1998 in respect of the acquired lands.

(d) The acquisition was made by invoking the emergency clause under Section 17 of the LA Act, 1894, and hence, after dispensing with the enquiry under Section 5-A of the LA Act, 1894 a declaration under Section 6 was issued on 08.07.1999 in respect of lands comprised in S.Nos.141 to 147 and covered under Award No.1 of 2001 dated 26.07.2021 and 08.07.1999 in respect of lands comprised in S.No.131 to 139 and covered under Award No. 2 of 2001 dated 20.07.2021.

(e) Thereafter, the Land Acquisition Officer (LAO), after due enquiry, determined the compensation payable for the land at Rs.300/- by Award Nos.02 of 2001 dated 20.07.2001 and Award No.01 of 2001 dated 26.07.2001.

(f) Not being satisfied with the compensation so determined by the LAO, the claimant(s) made his/their written objection(s) for enhancement of compensation stating that acquired lands were situated abutting Tambaram - Walajabad State Highway and Singaperumal Koil – Sriperumbudur State Highway and very close by to Grand Southern Trunk Road (GST Road-NH44) and National Highways (NH4); many Central and State Government Offices are located nearby the lands acquired for the Oragadam Industrial Scheme besides several Nationalized and Multinational Banking Institutions; and at the time of acquisition, the value of the land was Rs.3,000/- per square feet. It was also stated by the claimant(s) that the Government have proposed to form Greener International Airport at Sriperumbudur and there is a proposal from the Government of Tamil Nadu to lay 200 feet road from Mamallapuram to Ennore Port via Oragadam and the ground level work for the above two projects were already complete. On such objections, the LAO as Referring Officer made individual reference(s) under Section 18 of the LA Act, 1894 to the Reference Court (Principal Subordinate Judge) at Kanchipuram in respect of the lands situated at Panappakam village in the following Survey Number(s), Extent(s) covered under Award No.0