Supreme Court: In Land Acquisition Compensation The State And Its Instrumentalities Cannot Adopt An Attitude Of Pick And Choose

The Supreme Court in the case Shivappa vs Chief Engineer observed and has remarked that the State or its instrumentalities cannot be permitted to adopt an attitude of pick and choose. The court allowed the appeal in the land acquisition matter.
In the present case, the reference court awarded the compensation for an amount of Rs.4,61,250/­ per acre. Thus, the court partly allowed the appeal filed by the State, wherein the High Court is to reduce the amount to 4,15,000/­ per acre.
The Apex court in the case noted while allowing the appeal that an application is filed by State itself before the High Court for withdrawal of nine appeals arising out of acquisition under the same notification.
The bench in the case observed that the State or its instrumentalities cannot be permitted to adopt an attitude of pick and to choose. Thus, if it has been accepted by the State the ward of the Reference Court in respect of some of the claimants, the same cannot be permitted to adopt a different treatment to the other claimants. Therefore, such kind of attitude smacks of patent discrimination.
Accordingly, the bench allowed the appeal and has restored the order passed by the Reference Court.