In Brief

Land owners' land in Attapur, Hyderabad, was acquired in 1981 for extension of Nehru Zoological Park. After decades of litigation, the Reference Court awarded Rs. 250 per sq. yard. In mediation, parties agreed to Rs. 350 per sq. yard, embodied in a Joint Memorandum of Compromise. The High Court later reduced this to Rs. 100 per sq. yard without proper evidentiary basis. The Supreme Court held that compensation must rest on contemporary market value evidence (sale deeds, court decrees, witness testimony). As the land owners produced unrebutted documents showing Rs. 200–250 per sq. yard rates for adjacent acquisitions and the departmental witness admitted the land's prominence near institutions, the Reference Court's award of Rs. 250 per sq. yard was justified. The Court restored that amount and rejected deductions for development charges on 40-year-old acquisitions where development has already occurred.

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