Nagpur, Apr 11 (PTI) The railways may end up losing Rs 1 crore in connection with the valuation of a century-old red sandalwood tree on a plot of land in Yavatmal acquired for a public project.

The Bombay High Court has asked railways to deposit Rs 1 crore in this regard, and ordered that Rs 50 lakh from it be paid to the farmer whose land was acquired considering the delay in the valuation process.

In 2018, petitioner Keshav Shinde’s land in Kharshi village of Pusad was acquired for the Yavatmal-Pusad-Nanded railway line project but the compensation amount was not paid as the railways could not carry out the valuation process of the tree, after which he moved the HC.

In February, the High Court directed the authorities to value the tree failing and asked the railways to deposit a sum of Rs 1 crore with the court registry.

On April 9, when the matter came up for hearing, a bench of Justices Avinash Gharote and Abhay Mantri noted that the valuation process was still not done.

“Since the possession of the land as well as the tree has been taken by the respondent authorities long back, the petitioner would be entitled to compensation. Any delay is only increasing the costs and nothing else,” the HC said.

Citing further time that would be required for the purpose of determining the value of the red sandalwood tree, the HC said a sum of Rs 50 lakh be paid as of now to the petitioner.

The bench directed the authorities to carry out the exercise for determining the value of the red sandalwood tree by June and submit the same on July 7.

If the same is not done then the court said it would be constrained to release the remaining Rs 50 lakh to the petitioners, the HC said. PTI CLS SP BNM