As the land acquisition emerges as one of the most contentious issues, often taking political overtones on the question of low compensation, the Supreme Court has held that the farmers were entitled to an award as per the latest market price entered in revenue records for any land transaction in the area immediately before the government’s acquisition notification.
The top court also said that while determining the compensation for agriculture land, the government has to assess the value of the wells and trees; both fruit bearing and other commercial woods, which are the valuable assets for any farmer.
While applying these parameters for deciding the compensation to some farmers from Jalgaon area in Maharashtra for the land acquired by the state government for irrigation projects in 1996, a bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and H.L. Dattu enhanced the award to them six times — from `1 lakh to `6 lakhs — as was fixed by the Bombay high court.
The top court rejected the Maharashtra government’s claim that the market value of the land at the time of issuing of the notification ranted between `54,000 and `68,000 per hectare. The apex court found that in fact two sale deeds for `2.76 lakhs and `3 lakhs were registered in the “revenue records” a few days before the government had issued the notification.
The Supreme Court rejected the state government’s claim that such high price in the two land transactions could have been paid due to some “specific reasons”.
In fact, the high court had accepted such a stand of the Maharashtra government while overturning the compensation award fixed by the lower court at the rate of `6 lakhs per hectare on the basis of the two registered deeds.
While restoring the award to `6 lakhs, the apex court also took into consideration the assessment of land price by an independent agriculture and horticulture consultant, who had included the value of the irrigation wells, trees; both fruit bearing and commercial woods to determining the whole package.