Full Judgment Text
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PETITIONER:
A.P.S.R.T.C HYDERABAD, REPRESENTED BY MANAGING DIRECTOR
Vs.
RESPONDENT:
P. VENKAIAH & ORS.
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 28/04/1997
BENCH:
K. RAMASWAMY, D.P. WADHWA
ACT:
HEADNOTE:
JUDGMENT:
Present:
Hon’ble Mr. Justice K. Ramaswamy
Hon’ble Mr. Justice D.P. Wadhwa
Altaf Ahmed, Additional Solicitor General, B. Parthasarthy,
Adv. with him for the appellant
Ms. C.K. Sucharita and B. Kanta Rao. Advs. for the
Respondents.
O R D E R
The following order of the court was delivered:
Substitution allowed.
Leave granted. Heard learned counsel for the parties.
Notification under Section 4(1) of the Land Acquisition
Act, 1894 (for short, the ’Act’) was Published on July
7,1977, acquiring 14 acres 32 guntas of land of Bachiragh
village near Suryapet Nalgonda District (A.P.) for the
purpose of constructing a Bus stand Complex. The Land
Acquisition Officer awarded compensation @ Rs. 7,500\- per
acre. The sub-Court on reference awarded the considerated
compensation @ Rs. 3.60 lacs per acre. The High court it to
Rs. 2,25,000/- per acre. It is now not in dispute that
Exs.A-2, A-9 and A-11 were relied on to enhance the
compensation. Admittedly, none of the persons connected with
the documents, namely, neither the vendee nor the vendor has
been examined. This court in Kumari Veeraiah & ors. vs.
State of A.P. [(1995)) 4 SCC 136] held in the absence of
adduction of any evidence through the vendor or the vendee,
the document per se cannot be relied upon. This was
reiterated in State of Bihar vs. Madheshwar Prasad [(1996)6
SCC 197]. Acceptance of certified copy of the sale deed
under section 51-A relates only to the production of the
original sale deeds but it does not dispense with proof of
the contents of the documents, relative feature vis-a-vis
193, the land under acquisition. All is needed to be proved
by examining the persons connected with the same and parties
to the document. Following the above ratio, we hold that the
view taken by the High court and that of the reference Court
is entirely illegal.
The appeal is accordingly allowed. The judgment and
award of the reference court as modified stand set aside.
The matter is remitted to the reference court for disposal
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the matter afresh after an opportunity is given to adduce
evidence afresh and the same is considered. No costs.