Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
S.N. Variava and H.K. Sema

JUDGMENT

S.N. Variava, J.

1. These two Appeals are against the judgment dated 16th March, 2000.

2. Briefly stated the facts are as follows:

It appears that in the concerned premises there was a film studio. The owner had obtained a decree of eviction against the studio. The Appeals against that decree were dismissed all the way to this Court. Thereafter execution proceedings were filed to evict the film studio. At that stage, in order to help the film studio, the State Government on 24^th December, 1979 requisitioned the property and took possession thereof. The requisition was challenged by filing Writ Petition No. 850 of 1980. On 28^th February, 1980 a settlement was arrived at between the State Government and the owner. It was agreed that this property would be acquired by the State Government. A sum of Rs. 11,00,000/- was paid by the Government in advance of acquisition.

3. Section 4 Notification was issued in July, 1982. However, it was only published in the locality on 5^th of August, 1983, Thus for our purposes the relevant date would be 5^th August, 1983. As the Government was not taking any further steps, a Writ Petition was filed. On 22^nd May, 1985 the declaration under Section 6 was issued. An Award came to be passed on 16^th September, 1986. In this Award, the price of land was fixed at Rs. 10,940/- per cottah and for the structures a sum of Rs.5,65,726/- was awarded. Solatium at the rate of 30% was also awarded. So was additional compensation awarded at the rate of 12% from 5/8/1983 to the date of Award.

4. Not being satisfied the claimants filed a Reference under Section 18, Neither party led any evidence of any sale instances. Both the parties relied upon the judgment dated 30^th May, 1983 in L.A. Case No. 16/1975 which was in respect of acquisition of an adjoining property belonging to the Golf Club. The Reference Court valued the property in various ways, one of which was to take the value as given in the judgment dated 30^th May, 1983 for that portion of the acquired land which was farthest from the road. Thereafter applying the belting method the value was arrived at on the following basis:

The Reference Court then took into account the fact that the earlier acquisition was in respect of Notification dated 8^th February, 1975 and gave an appreciation of 10% per annum for 9-1/2 years. The Reference Court also gave an appreciation of 10% for potentiality and further 10% for largeness. The Reference Court thus arrived at the figure of Rs. 31,300/- per cottah. The Reference Court then proceeded to value the land in various other methods. It then took an average of the figures arrived at by calculat........