Supreme Court Holds Person Accepting Section 28A Award Can Seek Second Compensation Enhancement Based on Appeal Outcome
In a significant ruling on land acquisition compensation, the Supreme Court in the case of Andanayya and Ors. Versus Deputy Chief Engineer and Ors. has held that a second application under Section 28A of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 is maintainable where similarly placed landowners later secure higher compensation from the High Court.
A Bench of Justices M. M. Sundresh and N. Kotiswar Singh set aside the Karnataka High Court Division Bench judgment, which had rejected the appellants’ plea for enhanced compensation on the ground that they had already accepted the earlier re-determined amount and were therefore estopped from claiming further enhancement.
The Court observed that the benefit of enhanced compensation granted to one landowner by an appellate court must also extend to other similarly placed landowners who invoke Section 28A, even if they had earlier received compensation based on a Reference Court award.
The dispute arose out of land acquisition proceedings initiated in 2002 in Karnataka for a railway project, where the Land Acquisition Officer initially fixed compensation at ₹40,000 per acre. After some landowners sought a reference under Section 18, the Reference Court enhanced the amount to ₹2,00,000 per acre in 2006, and the present appellants, who had not sought such a reference, later obtained the same benefit through Section 28A in 2013.
Meanwhile, in appeals filed by other landowners, the High Court further enhanced compensation to ₹3,50,000 per acre. Relying on that higher award, the appellants filed a fresh application under Section 28A seeking parity in compensation, but the Land Acquisition Officer rejected the claim, leading to further litigation that ultimately reached the Supreme Court.
Allowing the appeal, the Supreme Court held that receipt of compensation under an earlier Section 28A determination cannot operate as a bar against seeking re-determination on the basis of a later High Court or Supreme Court enhancement. Emphasising that Section 28A is a beneficial provision intended to remove inequality among landowners affected by the same acquisition, the Court directed the authorities to re-determine compensation for the appellants at ₹3,50,000 per acre in line with the High Court award.