Executing court must readjudicate the compensation claim after hearing both parties.

The Union of India challenged the Principal Senior Civil Judge, Vadodara’s order dated 27 December 2018, passed below Exhibit-10 in Land Acquisition Reference No. 2 of 2015.

Notice had been issued in light of a coordinate Bench’s order remanding a matter said to involve an identical issue arising from the same acquisition proceedings.

The respondent organisation stated that it had no objection to remand for recalculation of the amount payable to it.

The parties agreed to that course.

1. Whether the order below Exhibit-10 should be set aside and the matter remanded to the executing Court for fresh adjudication of the respondent’s claim, including recalculation of the amount payable.

2. Whether the executing Court should hear the parties and consider fresh calculations before deciding the claim.

The judgment identifies no statutory provision or substantive legal test.

It relies on a coordinate Bench’s order in Civil Revision Application No. 42 of 2013 concerning a similar issue and on the parties’ agreement to remand.

The operative approach was to return the application for fresh adjudication, afford the parties a reasonable opportunity to be heard, and permit them to submit fresh calculations.

The Court considered the prior remand in the similar matter and the respondent’s express lack of objection to remand for recalculation.

Given the parties’ consensus, it accepted remand rather than determine the amount payable in the revision.

It directed the executing Court to rehear the application, consider any fresh calculations filed by the parties, and decide the respondent’s claim afresh.

The order dated 27 December 2018 below Exhibit-10 was quashed and set aside, and the matter was remanded to the executing Court for fresh adjudication after giving the parties a reasonable opportunity to be heard and permitting fresh calculations.

The executing Court was requested to decide the claim as early as possible, preferably within two months of receiving the order.

The pending civil application was disposed of, and the interim relief was vacated.