Legal News

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Ready Reckoner Rates used to calculate stamp duty cannot be used to determine land acquisition compensation.

By - Kshitij Srivastava

The Supreme Court noted that the Ready Reckoner pricing intended for stamp duty calculation could not serve as the foundation for determining compensation under the Land Acquisition Act.

The court also provided an explanation of why the Ready Reckoner prices—which are primarily intended to be used in the collection of appropriate stamp duty and registration fees—should not serve as the foundation for determining the compensation for lands acquired under the Land Acquisition Act. The bench noted these things in granting the appeal:

"Thus, there may be various factors, which are required to be considered for determining the market value of the land. The market value of the land depends upon the location of the land; area of the land; whether the land is in a developed area or not; whether the acquisition is of a small plot of land or a big chunk of land and number of other advantageous and disadvantageous factors are required to be considered. Therefore, there cannot be the same market value for the different lands while determining the compensation for the lands acquired under the Land Acquisition Act. Therefore, the rates mentioned in the Ready Reckoner, which are basically for the purpose of collection of stamp duty and as observed hereinabove, which are the uniform rates for all the lands in the area, cannot be the basis for determination of the compensation for the lands acquired under the Land Acquisition Act."