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Bhupendra Ramdhan Pawar v. Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation and Ors. Etc.

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 463Decided 9 Sept 2021
Civil Appeal Nos. 5611-5612 of 2021
Justice Ajay Rastogi · Justice Abhay S. Oka

Background

Roughly 10 hectares of land in Maharashtra were acquired in 1997 for an irrigation project. The Land Acquisition Officer's initial award was challenged, and the Bombay High Court enhanced the compensation to Rs. 1,00,000 per hectare for most of the land, along with separate amounts for various types of trees, but did not award any land compensation for about 2 hectares on which orange trees stood, and it rejected a claim for 100 mango trees for lack of evidence that they existed at the time of acquisition. The landowner appealed seeking a still-higher rate, while two connected appeals by other landowners sought a similar enhancement for their own acquired land.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that Rs. 1,00,000 per hectare was a fair rate, well supported by the sale-deed evidence on record, and found no error in the High Court's rejection of the mango tree claim given the absence of any revenue record evidence of mango trees after 1994. However, relying on its own precedent that when land value is fixed with reference to comparable sale prices (rather than orchard/yield value), the land and the trees growing on it must be compensated separately, the Court held the appellant was wrongly denied land compensation for the 2 hectares bearing orange trees: he was entitled to Rs. 1,00,000 per hectare for that land in addition to the tree compensation already awarded. The appeal was partly allowed on this limited point. The two connected appeals, which sought a general enhancement without any comparable additional evidence, were dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

In land acquisition cases, if the land's value is determined using comparable sale prices of similar land rather than its fruit-yield, the owner is entitled to compensation for both the land and the standing trees on it: one does not substitute for the other.

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

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