HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court has fixed a compensation of Rs 25,000 per acre for land at Rampur village in Warangal district in an acquisition case.
The bench comprising Justice V Eswaraiah and Justice K.S. Appa Rao pronounced the judgment in the case (AS No 1963) filed in 1998 by B Lingaiah and 31 others against the Land Acquisition Officer (LAO) of Warangal. The bench allowed the former’s appeal in part and dismissed the appeal filed by the LAO.
The main contention of the claimants was that the Reference Court, without taking into consideration the market value of the land at Rs 40,000 per acre, had fixed a compensation at about Rs 16,000 per acre. They sought an enhancement of compensation. But the government pleader sought to reduce the compensation awarded by the reference court.
The bench, took into account that the land was located far away from the highway and fixed the amount at Rs 25,000. The division bench, in its order, stated that during the course of arguments, both the counsels placed reliance on the findings of the court in AS No.1891 and AS No. 1895 of the year 2000 and AS No. 775 of 2001 in which the market value fixed by the reference court at Rs 48,500 was confirmed by the court. In these orders, the land acquired was meant to establish an industrial estate.
“Before going into the merits of the case, it is to be seen whether the reliance placed by the LAO as well as the Reference Court on the documents marked either side for fixation of the market value is in accordance with the sound principles of the law as per the Act. Admittedly the land in question was acquired for setting up of an industrial estate by the APIIC. Once an industrial estate is established in the acquired land, automatically the value of the land will be increased irrespective of the factum of the interiority”, the bench observed.