The Supreme Court has enhanced the compensation for the land owners of villages Gijhore and Hoshiyarpur in a batch of cross appeals preferred by the landowners and the Noida Authority against the order of the Allahabad High Court, and has further directed the Noida Authority to deposit the compensation within a period of 8 weeks.

Holding that the land owners of village Gijhore and Hoshiyarpur are entitled to compensation at the rate of Rs.306/- per square yard, after a deduction of 15% towards development charges, a bench of Justice Surya kant and Justice JK Maheshwari said, "...While it may be true that when relevant sale instances for the same village are available, the exemplars of adjoining areas need not be banked upon to assess the fair market value. These principles, however, have to be applied on a case-to case basis. It cannot be overlooked that the acquisition of land in village Hoshiyarpur is part and parcel of the wide expansion of regulated and planned development of the entire area. The acquisition has been made across the revenue limits of several villages. There is no evidence to suggest that the potentiality of the acquired land of village Hoshiyarpur was, in any manner, inferior than that of the adjoining villages. It is also undeniable that the villages of Gijhore and Hoshiyarpur are adjacent to each other".

Senior Advocate Yatindra Sharma appeared for the petitioner, Advocate Manvi Dixit appeared for NOIDA, and Senior Advocate Ravindra Kumar appeared for the respondent.

In the present matter, the State of Uttar Pradesh issued a Notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 where a land, measuring 177.64 acres was proposed to be acquired for the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA) for planned industrial development. The Land Acquisition Officer awarded compensation @ Rs.50/- per sq.yd.

The land owners sought reference under Section 18 of the Act, and the Reference Court awarded an actual compensation of Rs.126/- per sq.yd.,after assessing the market value of the acquired land at the rate of Rs.252/- per sq.yd and applying a deduction of 50% towards development charges.

Pursuant to which the High Court in appeal maintained the market value as assessed by the Reference Court, but after reducing deduction charges, the land owners were held entitled to compensation at the rate of Rs.176/- per sq.yd.

The same came to challenged before the Court by the NOIDA Authority as well as the land owners being dissatisfied with the compensation amount assessed by the High Court. The Noida Authority alleged the amount to be in excess as the High Court has erroneously granted compensation at a higher rate by overlooking the judicial precedents pertaining to the acquisition of land in and around village Gijhore, where compensation at a lesser rate was awarded. Further urged that at least 15% cut towards development charges be levied on the rate assessed by the High Court.

While the land owners relied upon a catena of judgments to urge that the land owners are entitled to a much higher compensation than Rs.297/- per sq.yd as the annual escalation at the rate of 15% is a well acknowledged factor.

Therefore, there were three questions before the court to be determined:

1. whether the Allahabad High Court had correctly assessed the market value of the land of village Gijhore (NOIDA) at the rate of Rs.297/- per sq.yd. and of village Hoshiyarpur (NOIDA) at the rate of Rs.216/- per square yard.

2. If not, whether the market value of the acquired land of the two villages deserves to be enhanced or reduced?

3. whether the High Court ought to have made any deduction towards development charges.

The Court after considering the factual matrix of the case and the judgments referred to by the parties and the High Court noted that "We have taken a look at the site plan notified by NOIDA depicting the revenue estate of different villages, and we find that the villages like Chhalera Banger are adjacent to village Gijhore, and in the absence of any evidence to draw distinction between the potentiality and utility of land in the two villages, we see no reason to grant a different rate of compensation for the land of village Gijhore. At the cost of repetition, we point out that the decisions relied upon by the High Court pertain to the acquisitions that took place in the years 1983-1988 whereas the acquisition in the instant cases commenced on February 27, 1990. In this view of the matter, we do not find any merit in the appeals preferred by NOIDA seeking reduction in compensation as determined by the High Court".

The Court was also of the opinion that the rate of 15% or more, may not be a reality at the spot, however, opined, "Nevertheless, it will be difficult to presume that the prices will freeze completely or that the fear of acquisition will lead to any fall in the prevalent market value".

"...Only a guess work approach, based upon all the attending circumstances, will have to be resorted to determine the probable market value. We, thus, feel that the acquired land in the case in hand, keeping in view its location in NCR, potentiality, utility, further prospects and it being already surrounded by multiple acquisitions, must be capable of fetching an escalated price of at least 10% per annum. The last acquisition in respect of the instances relied upon by the High Court of the adjoining village was of 1988. In the present case, the acquisition commenced in the year 1990. The land owners, in our considered view, are entitled to an escalation of 10% per annum on the market price as finally determined by this Court", the bench further added.

Thus, the Court partly allowed the appeal.

Cause Title: New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (Noida) V. Harchand (Since Deceased) Through His Legal Heirs & Ors.

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Justice Surya KantJustice JK MaheshwariAllahabad High Court

Agatha Shukla