Market value, The term 'market value' has ac-quired a definite connotation by judicial decisions. Any addition to the value of the land to the owner whose land is compulsorily acquired which addition is the result of such factors as are unrelated to the open market cannot be regarded as a part of the market value, Union of India v. Shri Ram Mehar, AIR 1973 SC 305: (1973) 2 SCR 720: (1973) 1 SCC 109.
Market value means the price that a willing purchaser would pay to a willing seller for the property having due regard to its existing condition with all its existing advantages and its potential possibilities when laid out in the most advantageous manner excluding any advantages due to the carrying out of the scheme for which the property is compulsory acquired, Thakur Kanta Prasad Singh v. State of Bihar, AIR 1976 SC 2219: (1976) 3 SCC 772: (1976) 3 SCR 585; Prithvi Raj Taneja v. State of Madhya Pradesh, AIR 1977 SC 1560: (1977) 1 SCC 684: (1977) 2 SCR 633. (Land Acquisition Act, 1894, s. 23)
Market value means what a willing purchaser would pay to a willing seller for the property having regard to the advantages available to the land and the development activities which may be going on in the vicinity and the potentiality of the land. This is usually done by finding the market value of similar land, Mahabir Prasad Santuka v. Collector, AIR 1987 SC 720 (721): (1987) 1 SCC 587: (1987) 2 SCR 289. (Land Acquisition Act, 1894, s. 23)
The market value of a property may be determined from the stand-point of a willing purchaser of the land ready and willing to offer the consideration therefor to a buyer. The owner of a land normally would opt for the best offer. Once he has agreed to a price; so far as he is concerned the same ordinarily should be presumed to be the best offer which he could get, Dayal Singh v. Union of India, (2003) 2 SCC 593: AIR 2003 SC 1140 (1144). [Land Acquisition Act, 1894, s. 23]