In the High Court at Calcutta Civil Appellate Jurisdiction Appellate Side The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya And The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Supratim Bhattacharya FAT No. 266 of 2020 Subhadip Bose Vs.

LA Collector, Hooghly, Chinsurah With COT 178 of 2025 Madhusri Roy @ Ray Vs.

State of West Bengal With COT 177 of 2025 Aniruddha Bandyopadhyay and another Vs.

State of West Bengal With FA No. 228 of 2022 Aniruddha Banerjee Vs.

LA Collector, Hooghly, Chinsurah With FA No. 377 of 2025 Sheela Mukherjee Vs.

LA Collector, Hooghly, Chinsurah With FA No. 41 of 2021 +

CAN 5 of 2022 State of West Bengal represented by LA Collector, Hooghly Vs.

Aniruddha Banerjee With FA No. 70 of 2022 State of West Bengal Vs.

Mahua Mitra With FA No. 72 of 2022 State of West Bengal Vs.

Sangramjit Singha Roy With FAT No. 267 of 2020 Subarna Singha Roy Vs.

LA Collector, Hooghly, Chinsurah With FAT No. 268 of 2020 Sangramjit Singha Roy Vs.

LA Collector, Hooghly, Chinsurah With FAT No. 272 of 2020 State of West Bengal represented by LA Collector, Hooghly Vs.

Subhadip Bose With FAT No. 273 of 2020 +

CAN 3 of 2024 State of West Bengal represented by LA Collector, Hooghly Vs.

Madhusri Roy @ Ray With FAT No. 277 of 2020 +

CAN 5 of 2023 State of West Bengal represented by LA Collector, Hooghly Vs.

Bikramjit Singha Roy With FA No. 200 of 2025 State of West Bengal represented by LA Collector, Hooghly Vs.

Aniruddha Bandhyopadhyay and another With FAT No. 275 of 2020 +

CAN 4 of 2024 The State of West Bengal Vs.

Smt. Sheela Mukherjee For the land losers: Mr. Ayan Banerjee, Ms. Debjani Sengupta, Ms. Paulomi Ghosh For the State : Mr. Amal Kumar Sen, AAG, Mr. Soumitra Bandyopadhyay, Sr. Gvt. Adv., Mr. Aniruddha Sen, Mr. Priyabrata Batabyal Heard & reserved on : 22.12.2025 and 23.12.2025 (FAT No. 275 of 2020)

Judgment on : 14.01.2026 Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J.:-

1. By a judgment dated May 8, 2025, a co-ordinate Bench of this Court, inter alia comprised of one of us (Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J.), had disposed of two appeals bearing FAT No. 516 of 2019 and FAT No. 3 of 2019, which, we are apprised, have not been interfered with in any further challenge till date and operates as res judicata between the parties thereto.

2. All the present appeals and cross-objections arise from the self-

same land acquisition proceeding from which the said previous appeals arose. The arguments advanced by the land losers as well as the State in the previous appeals are adopted in their entirety by both sides in the present appeals. It has been prayed that the instant appeals be also disposed of in terms of the judgment passed in the said earlier appeals. However, for the sake of completion, we narrate the salient features of the said judgment dated May 8, 2025, while passing a similar judgment in the present appeals as well.

3. The matter arises out of a Notification issued under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (hereinafter referred to as “the LA Act”) in respect of lands located at Mouza- Bhadrakali in Uttarpara, West Bengal in respect of acquisition of such lands for the public purpose of rehabilitation of squatters/ refugees of the Bhadrakali Women’s Home. The Notification was followed by a hearing given under Section 5A of the LA Act by the District Collector. However, in an order passed in connection with a writ petition, a fresh hearing under Section 5A was directed to be held and all previous steps taken from the initial hearing under the said provision till then were annulled.

4. In the meantime, the right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Re-settlement Act, 2013 (for short, “the 2013 Act”) came into force with effect from April 1, 2024, pursuant to which the calculation of compensation was required to be made under Section 26 of the 2013 Act by dint of Section 24 thereof.

5. A re-hearing was held under Section 5A and awards were duly passed, in respect of which references were initiated at the behest of the land losers, including the present