Farmers be given market price for land while acquisition: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: Compensation given by the government to farmers while acquiring their land should be decided on the basis of its market value, the Supreme Court has held.

While increasing the base price from Rs 2.75 lakh per hectare to Rs 4.09 lakh per acre for the land which was acquired by the Punjab government, a bench of Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma said that the owners are entitled to the highest value which similar land in the locality is shown to have fetched.

The court passed the order on a bunch of petitions filed by the land owners seeking enhanced compensation for their land which is situated on the Ambala-Chandigarh Highway.

While fixing the price, the apex court took into consideration the various deals in which the land was sold around the time of issuing notification and the highest price was Rs 4.08 lakh per hectare.

"After all when land is being compulsorily taken away from a person he is entitled to say that he should be given the highest value which similar land in the locality is shown to have fetched in a bona fide transaction entered into between a willing purchaser and a willing seller near about the time of the acquisition," the bench said while referring to its earlier judgement.

In this case, the state government had issued notification for acquiring 550.03 acre of land in Patiala district in 1992 for setting up of industrial plant there.

Not satisfied by the compensation given to them, the land owner had approached the lower court which fixed the price at Rs 1.50 lakh per acre. They then approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court for further enhancement which fixes it at Rs 2.75 lakh per acre.