SUPREME COURT: SMALLER LAND SALES CAN BE CONSIDERED FOR DETERMINING FAIR AND JUST LAND ACQUISITION COMPENSATION

The Supreme Court in the case Horrmal (Deceased) through his LRs and others versus State of Haryana and others observed that there being no to take into account the sale of smaller pieces of land as an exemplar for determining the fair and just land acquisition compensation.

- NEW DELHI

The bench comprising of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing the present matter.

The bench in the case stated that there are multiple sale deeds of smaller plots, and these represent the best available evidence for estimating compensation. There being no legal impediment to considering such sale deeds, the logical progression in the compensation estimation process would be to identify the most suitable sale deed(s) for determining the market value and subsequently, to apply adequate deductions on the same.

The court also referred to the case of Mehrawal Khewaji Trust v. State of Punjab, wherein to reason that since the person whose land is acquired is entitled to receive the highest value of compensation is based on the value fetched by the similar pieces of land adjacent to the acquired land, there-fore, there would not be a legal impediment to take into consideration the sale value of the smaller pieces of land.