The Additional District Judge of a city court has more than tripled the compensation at which the Land Acquisition Collector had acquired more than five bigha of land from a group of farmers at Maidangarhi village in South Delhi in 1980.
The Collector had acquired the land for a project to be done by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA).
The Collector had divided the land into five categories and fixed their rates at Rs. 16,000, Rs. 14,000, Rs. 12,000, Rs. 10,000 and Rs. 3,500 per bigha respectively.
‘Assess potential value’
While challenging the compensation amounts, the land owners submitted that the acquired land was adjacent to posh colonies Saket, DLF and Indira Gandhi Open University, and, thus, it had a distinct potential value.
The value of the land should not be assessed as agricultural land but on the basis of its potential for residential, commercial, industrial and other habitable purposes, counsel for the land owners submitted.
The DDA and the Centre opposed the farmers’ plea for enhancement of compensation, submitting that the findings given by the Collector in his award was based on cogent and reliable evidence.
Stating there was no scope for enhancement, they submitted that possession of the land was given to the DDA in July 1987, and till date it had not been transferred to any scheme.
The court, however, dismissed their arguments and enhanced the compensation of all categories of the land to Rs. 59,770 per bigha on the ground of parity with compensation granted for a different piece of land in the same notification of the Maidangarhi village by a court.
“It is a settled law, that two equals are to be treated equally. The petitioners cannot be discriminated among equals, they are entitled for compensation at the same rate as others were held entitled. The petitioners are entitled for enhanced compensation to Rs. 59,770 per bigha,” Additional District Judge Inder Jeet Singh of the Saket district courts said in his order.
