The determination of land value in land acquisition cases should consider the prevailing market rate, admissibility of sale deeds, and the potential commercial use of the acquired land.

1. Heard Mr. B. Dutta, learned counsel appearing for the appellants as well as Mr. R. Debnath, learned counsel appearing for the respondent.

2. This is an appeal under Section 54 of the Land Acquisition Act against the judgment and award dated 11.02.2011 delivered in Misc.(LA) No.04/2005 by the Land Acquisition Judge, West Tripura, Agartala, Court No.2.

3. The facts are mostly admitted.

A piece of land measuring 002 acres of bastu class comprised in khatian no.1936 situated at mouja Pratapgarh under Bishalgarh Sub-Division in plot nos.596/5967/P was acquired for laying the water supply pipe line from the Jawahar bridge to the police drop-gate by the notification no.F.9 (1)Rev/Acq/XIV/99 dated 24.08.1999 under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 and the subsequent declaration no.F.9(1)Rev/Acq/SIV/99 dated 04.12.199 under section 6 of the said Act.

4. The Land Acquisition Collector, by means of the purported inquiry, determined the land value at Rs.16,25,000 per kani, having observed as under :

“The land under acquisition is situated by the eastern side of the National Highway road running from Milan Sangha to Police Drop Gate. The proposed acquired land is frontage of the land held by jotedar and is located immediate contiguity to Highway. It is within developing town having existing advantageous of Govt. offices, shops, Schools and all its possibilities and potentialities. The land proposed to be may be taken for high potentialities i.e. as urban land. Now, I undertake to analyse the sale deeds which collected by Sri N. Chakraborty, Amin and accepted in the previous para and find out the average rate.

Sl. No.	Deed No. & Date	Plot No.	Class	Amount	Per kani value	Average rate
1.	1-1139 dt.21.2.97	175,176,1 79	Nal, Pukur,	Rs.90,000/-	Rs.10,00,000/-	Rs.7,81,42,750/-
2.	1-2951 dt. 14.5.97	888/16268	Viti	Rs. 40,000/-	Rs.6,40,0000/-
3.	1-1853 dt.20.4.98	523,524, 525,526, 613,527, 526/5509	Viti	Rs.12,000/-	Rs.6,85,710/-
4.	1-1854 dt.20.4.98	-Do-	Viti, Nal Pukar	Rs.1,00,000/-	Rs. 8,00,000/-

As laid down in state of Panjab Vrs. Poho/AIR, 1986 the market price of the acquired land has to be assessed according to average price of the relevant and comparable sale instances relied upon and not according to sale instances which might be fetching the maximum price. Here, I have taken 4 (four) comparable sale instances the market value of which is ranging from 6 lacs 40 thousand to 10 lacs. The average market price of 7 (seven) sale deeds comes to Rs.7,81,427/-

It has been pointed out in the foregoing paragraphs that the land under acquisition is the frontage of land held by the jotedars which is immediate contiguity to the National Highway road. In Govt. of Bombay Vs. Karim Tar Mahammad, (1909) ILR, 33 Bombay, 325, it was emphasized that when determining the value of frontage land, the depth is the question of supreme importance. On the other hand, the acquired land having been a small portion of the land and structure held by the occupier jotedar may face part damage of structure which has not been acquired.

In this project, we also acquired some land under Badharghat mouja i.e the western side of Agartala-Bishalgarh road. We assessed in Badharghat mouja @ Rs.16,25,000/ per kani for all class of land under the project.

5. Being dissatisfied by the said land value determined by the L.A. Collector, the respondent, hereinafter referred to as the ‘referring claimant’, pressed for reference under section 18 of the L.A. Act, 1894. The said reference, being Misc.(LA) No.04/2005 has been determined by the Land Acquisition Judge, West Tripura, Agartala, Court No.2 by the judgment and award dated 11.02.2011, observing that :

13. The claimant has relied upon a sale deed marked as Exbt.1 which shows that 1 Kara 1 Kranta 2 and ½ dhoors of land were sold at the considerat