Relief for land acquired by SHAR

MADURAI: Nearly four decades after the State government had acquired land for expanding the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at the Sriharikota Range (SHAR), near Chennai, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has modified the compensation amount paid to one of the land owners.In 1981, the State government had acquired 22.64 acres of land in Kariammal village, near Ponneri, in the erstwhile Chengalpattu district after paying compensation to the owners and providing alternative house sites to them at Vairavankuppam in Pulicat village.Of this, 13.54 acres were acquired from one K Munusamy for which the Special Tahsildar (LA), SHAR, fixed the compensation at the rate of `10 per cent of the land. Taking into account the value of the trees at the site, the total compensation for Munusamy’s land was fixed at `51,428.Unhappy with the compensation, Munusamy had moved the Tiruvallur Sub-Judge Court seeking to enhance the compensation to `360 per cent. In 1993, the Sub-Judge passed orders fixing the price at `450 per cent based on market value of the land.Challenging this, the Special Tahsildar filed an appeal before the Madras High Court and prayed that the decree of the Sub-Judge be quashed.Justice M Venugopal, before whom the matter came up, held that neither the owner of the land nor the government should suffer losses in the valuation of the same.“The owner or the claimant in respect of the land acquired should not be put to loss by under valuation. But at the same time, public exchequer should not be put to undue burden by excess valuation,” he said while fixing the market value of the land acquired from Munusamy at `110 a cent. The amount shall be paid along with a 30 per cent solatium and interest on solatium.