Ramachandran Nair, J.
This appeal is filed by the State aggrieved by the judgment in L.A.R.No.116/2007 of the Sub Court, Thiruvananthapuram.
2. The land was acquired for the purpose of widening of LMS- Attakkulangara road for Trivandrum Development Authority. The notification under Section 4(1) is dated 5.8.2005. The land acquisition officer fixed land value @ ` 4,11,665/- per Are and the reference court has refixed the same at ` 24,70,000/- per Are.
3. We heard the learned Senior Government Pleader Sri.R.Padmaraj for the appellant and the learned Senior Counsel Sri.K.P.Satheesan for the respondents.
4. The reference court as per the judgment has discussed the matter in detail. Ext.A1 is the certified copy of the award in L.A.R.No.97/99. Ext.A2 is the certified copy of the award in L.A.R.No.516/2006 and Ext.A3 is the certified copy of the award in L.A.R.No.184/2006. The respondents produced Exts.R1 to R4 and AW1 was examined.
5. The Land Acquisition Officer has fixed the land value on the basis of sale deed No.1202/04. The reference court found that Ext.A3 cannot be relied upon as it has not become final since it is challenged in appeal. In Ext.A2, this Court fixed the value at ` 9 lakhs per cent. Finally it was noticed by the reference court that the award passed by the reference court in L.A.R.No.115/2007 is just and reasonable. The judgment of this Court in L.A.A.No.516/2006 where the value has been fixed at `9 lakhs has been referred to. That was a property near over bride and the court below was of the view that the property near over bridge is having more potential value and commercial importance and hence the acquired property in this case cannot be compared with the property situated near over bridge and east fort. Finally based on the judgment in L.A.A.No.516/2006 and the less potential value of the acquired property, the court below fixed land value at `24,70,000/-.
6. The learned Government Pleader pointed out that in a similar case this Court in the judgment in L.A.A.No.459/2011, where the acquisition was for the same purpose and the property was also in the same village and the notification under Section 4(1) was also on the same date and the value awarded by the land acquisition officer and the reference court were also the same, this Court has refixed the land value at `21,60,000/- per Are.
In that view of the matter, we are of the view that the land value as fixed by this Court in L.A.A.No.459/2011 can be adopted herein also. The appeal is allowed. The judgment of the reference court is modified and we refix the land value for the acquired property herein in at `21,60,000/- per Are. The parties will suffer their costs.
T.R.RAMACHANDRAN NAIR, JUDGE P.V.ASHA, JUDGE sv.