Karnataka HC Revives 3 Farmers’ Claim For Higher Compensation, Tells Land Officer To Await Appeal Outcome On Same-Notification Award

The petitioners claimed joint ownership of 39 guntas in R.S. No. 148 at Siddapura Village, acquired for the Teggi–Siddapur Lift Irrigation Project under a notification dated 9 August 2010.

They were awarded compensation at Rs. 38,311 per acre and applied under Section 28A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, relying on a Reference Court award of Rs. 10,56,000 per acre for land in the same village acquired under the same notification.

The Special Land Acquisition Officer (SLAO) rejected the application because an appeal against that award was pending.

The petitioners challenged the rejection by writ petition.

The petitioners invoked Section 28A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, as amended by the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Act, 1984, to seek redetermination of compensation by reference to a court award concerning land acquired under the same notification.

The Court held, in the circumstances of this case, that the SLAO should not reject such an application merely because an appeal against the relied-upon award is pending; the SLAO should await the appeal’s outcome and then decide the application in accordance with law.

The petitioners’ application relied on an award concerning land in the same village, acquired under the same notification and for the same project.

Since the sole reason for rejecting the application was the pending appeal against that award, the SLAO should have awaited the appellate decision rather than rejecting the application outright.

The Court therefore accepted the State’s submission that the application be reconsidered after the appeal’s outcome.

It directed the SLAO to await the outcome of MFA No. 102198/2022 and connected matters, and thereafter decide the application in accordance with law.