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Ambalal Babulal Patel Etc. Etc. vs. Group General Manager, ONGC & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 66Decided 19 Jan 2022
Civil Appeal Nos. 385-386 of 2022
Ajay Rastogi · Abhay S. Oka

Background

Lands at villages Pansar, Dhamasana and Isand (Taluka Kalol, District Gandhinagar, Gujarat) were acquired under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 for a public purpose benefiting ONGC. After the Special Land Acquisition Officer fixed compensation, the landowners sought a reference, and the Reference Court awarded them additional compensation with interest and statutory benefits. ONGC challenged this before the Gujarat High Court, which upheld the statutory benefits but reduced the rate of additional compensation, prompting the landowners to appeal to the Supreme Court in this batch of connected appeals.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court, after hearing both sides, held that the Reference Court's assessment of additional compensation, arrived at after properly appreciating the material on record under Section 18 of the Land Acquisition Act, was neither unsupported by evidence nor legally unsustainable. It found that the High Court's interference in reducing that additional compensation was not justified. The Court therefore restored the additional compensation as originally awarded by the Reference Court, modifying the High Court's judgment only to that limited extent, and disposed of all the connected appeals in the same terms.

Lesson Learnt

Appellate courts should be cautious about overturning a Reference Court's compensation assessment in land acquisition cases when that assessment is properly grounded in the evidence on record; landowners who feel shortchanged by a land acquisition award have a real remedy through reference and further appeal.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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