State of Madras v. Rev. Brother Joseph

MATHEW, J. These two appeals, by certificate are directed against the judgment and decree of the High Court or' Madras in A.S. Nos. 63 and 78 of 1959 dated April 10, 1962. The appellant, the Government of Maclr~.s, acquired 9 acres and 86 c~nrs _of "land in Tirunelveli District as it was needed for reserve area m Block III of Manimuthar Project. The notification under s. 4(1) of the Land Acquisition Act was published on Macch 7, 1956. . The area of the land with which we are concerned in this appeat is one acre and '59 cents comprised of 3 topes, of coconuts and oranges. . The Land Acquisition ~llice!, by his awaql, gave a total compen­ sa!Io~ of Rs. 28,?72-15-6 mclus1ve of solatium. The method adopted by h_1m for valumg. coconut and orange topes was to capitalize the net mcome from these topes at 20 years' purchase. 310 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [ 1974 j 1 S.C.R. Dissatisfied with the award, the respondent moved for reference under s. 18 of the Land Acquisition Act and the case wa, referred to the Subordinate Judge, Tirunelveli. The learned Subordinate Judge increased the estimated yield from the coconut and orange trees as well as the price of the yield but capitalized the net income at 20 years' purchase. Against this deci· sion, the State of Madras filed As. No. 63 of 1959, while the respon­ dent filed A.S. No. 78 of 1959 claiming a further enhancement. The High Court, by the common judgment under appeal, allowed the appeals in part and dismissed them in other respects. As regard;; the coconut and orange topes, the High Court held that capitalization of the net income at 20 years' purchase was a fair method for arriving at their market value. In this appeal, the only point argued by counsel was the High Court went wrong in capitalizing the net income of the tapes at 20 years' purchase. Counsel relied on the decision of the Madras High Court in Shunmuga Velavuda Mudaliar and others v. Collector of Tanjore(') where it was held that the proper method to find out the market value of coconut garden would be to Capitalize the net income from the garden at 10 years' purchase and said that there was no reason for the High Court to depart from the principle there laid down. It may be noted that no reason was given in that ruling why capi­ talization of the net income should be at l 0 years' purchase. All that the Court said was : "In Rajammal v. Head Quarters Deputy Collector, Vellore (1914) 25 I.C. 393, a Bench of this Court estimated the value of a tope of trees at 20 years' annual rental; but those were mango trees which as stated by the learned Judges, are long lived and yield produce for a number of years.'' There was no discussion in the judgment of the principle on the basis of which such a mode of calculation was adopted. In Kompalli Nageshwara Rao & Others v. Special Deputy Collec­ tor, Land Acquisition( 2 ), the Court said that the. approved method for valuing orchards is to capitalize their net income at a number of years' purchase which has to be fixed with reference to the nature of the trees and other circumstances and capitalized the net income at 15 years' purchase for finding out the market value of the coconut garden and the orange orchard in question in that case. In Elias M. Cohen v. Secy. of State('), the net income from an orchard was capi­ talized at 15 years' purchase to find out its market value. In this case, the Land Acquisition Officer found in his award that all the fruit bearing trees will yield for more th,an 20 years. That was (I) A.l.R. 1926 Mad. 945 (2). (2) A.I.R. 1959 A.P. 52 at 61. (3) 43 Ind. Cas 17(2): A.I.R. 1918 Pat. 625(2) (Q}. 0 II MAllRAS v. REV. BROl'llFR JOSEPH (Mathew, J.) 31 l the reason which wcighcJ with him lo capitalize the net income of these lopes at 20 years' pw·chasc to find out their market value. We do not think that the lc:1rncd Subordinate Judge and the High Court went wrong in accepting this estimate of the avera/ll) yielding life of coconut and orange trees. Therefore, we do not think that the capi­ talization of the net yield from these topcs at 20 years' purchase was not a fair method to arrive :1t Ll1c· market value of these lopes. We arc not satisfied that the method of valuation adopted for finding out the market value of the topcs was. in the circumstances, in any way unreasonable. The appeals fail and they arc dismissed with co,.s. V.P.S. Appeals dismissed.