38 Years Later, High Court Awards Relief For 200 Trees

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): After a 38-year legal battle, the Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the State government to pay compensation for 200 Babool trees standing on land acquired for a public project, holding that the claim had been wrongly ignored despite supporting evidence.

Justice Pavan Kumar Dwivedi partly allowed a first appeal filed by Babulal and others against an award passed by the reference court in October 2000 under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

The dispute arose from land acquired in 1988 for the construction of the Hari Phatak overbridge.

The landowners had accepted compensation under protest and later sought enhancement, arguing that the land had commercial potential and that they were also entitled to compensation for nearly 200 Babool trees on the acquired land.

Before the High Court, the appellants contended that the reference court had ignored sale deeds indicating a higher market value and had failed to decide their claim for compensation for the trees.

The State argued that the sale deeds relied upon were executed after the acquisition notification and therefore could not be considered for determining market value. It also disputed the claim of higher land value.

The High Court agreed with the State on land valuation, holding that compensation must be based on the market value prevailing on the date of the acquisition notification and that post-notification sale deeds could not justify enhancement.

However, the court found that the claim for the Babool trees was supported by revenue records and witness testimony and had been consistently raised by the landowners.

Holding that the claim had been wrongly ignored, the court directed the State to pay Rs 50,000 as compensation for the trees along with statutory interest, while upholding the land valuation.