Section 51A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, allows the court to accept certified copies of registered documents as evidence of the transaction recorded in such document, without the need to examine persons connected with the transactions.

K.T. Thomas, J. - Leave granted.

2. In a land acquisition case a Division Bench of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh enhanced land value to Rupees seventy five thousand and odd per acre over and above the market value fixed by the reference Court. For making the aforesaid enhancement the Division Bench of the High Court took into consideration two sale-deeds the copies of which were marked without examining anybody connected with the transaction recorded in the instrument. Appellant is actually the State of Andhra Pradesh though in the cause-title it is shown as the Land Acquisition Officer concerned of the State. Appellant contended that the High Court should not have taken into account the sale price shown in the above mentioned two sale-deeds as the claimant did not examine the vendee or the vendor or anybody else connected with the sale. There are two decisions of this Court which propounded a legal position consistent with the above stand of the appellant State. They are Inder Singh v. Union of India, 1993(3) SCC 240, and P. Ram Reddy v. Land Acquisition Officer, Hyderabad, 1995(2) SCC 305.

3. As the said decisions were rendered by two Judges bench a plea was made before us by Sri Vidya Sagar, learned counsel arguing for the respondent that the aforesaid legal position may be reconsidered. Learned counsel submitted that Section 51A has been incorporated in the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (for short the "the LA Act") specifically for obviating the insistence for examination of anyone connected with the transactions mentioned in such sale- deeds if the court has to consider such transactions as evidence in the case.

4. The facts are very simple. A land having an extent of 7.35 acres of Bheemagal Town has been acquired under the L.A. Act for a public purpose. Notification under Section 4(1) of the said Act was issued on 11.5.1984. The Land Acquisition Officer estimated the price of the said land as Rs. 17,200/- per acre. The District Court, on reference being made under Section 16 of the LA Act, enhanced the land value to Rs. 65,762/- per acre. Before the reference Court, the landowner relied on Ex.A1 to A4, which are certified copies of registered sale-deeds relating to other lands. It was contended that those sale-deeds relate to similar lands and therefore the value of the land mentioned in such documents can be used as guidance for fixing up the market value of the acquired land.

5. Ex. A1 is the copy of sale-deed dated 28.8.1983, in respect of 0.02 guntas of land. PW2 the vendor shown in the said sale deed was examined before the reference Court. Ex. A3 is the copy of the sale-deed dated 2.1.1984 in respect of three Guntas of land, for which PW3, the vendee was examined by the claimant.

6. Ex.A2 and Ex.A4 are the copies of sale-deed dated 15.11.1993 and 24.3.1984 respectively, which are said to be the instruments relating to small plots of land situated in the vicinity of the acquired land. The reference Court did not take into account those two sale-deeds on the ground that nobody connected with the transaction involved in those deeds had been examined as a witness. But the Division Bench of the High Court expressed that the reference Court should have taken into consideration those two sale deeds also for fixing the land value of the acquired land. The High Court took them into consideration and finally reached the conclusion that the value of the acquired land could have been Rs. 75,000/- per acre as on the date of the notification issued under Section 4(1) of the L.A. Act.

7. Smt. K. Amreshwari, learned senior counsel for the appellant State contended that the High Court ought not have taken into consideration any of those documents as nobody connected with the transaction mentioned therein had been examined. On the other hand Sri Vidya Sagar, learned counsel for the respondent submitted that Section 51A of the Act is intended to enable the court to consider the transaction evidenced by the sale deeds. That se