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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | SC ‘terror’ tag on land rush

SC ‘terror’ tag on land rush

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published Published on Sep 21, 2010   modified Modified on Sep 21, 2010


The Supreme Court today held that any land acquisition depriving farmers of their “land, livelihood and way of life” without following due process was akin to “state-sponsored terrorism”.

Slamming the Uttar Pradesh government’s land acquisition process, a two-judge bench headed by Justice G.S. Singhvi observed: “Throwing out villagers from their land and taking away their livelihood and way of life is state-sponsored terrorism.”

The top court was hearing an appeal by some Noida villagers against a December 2008 Allahabad High Court decision upholding the acquisition of their land in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautambudh Nagar district without giving them a chance to register objections.

“Land cultivated by them for generations is taken away…. Half of the compensation… is also taken away by the black coats (lawyers),” Justice Singhvi observed caustically. “What are we up to?”

He also apportioned a part of the blame to the judiciary saying the high court should have heard the farmers instead of throwing out their case “summarily”. Such an approach was “perverse” and “absolutely unjust”, he said.

When Shail Dwivedi, the additional advocate-general defending the state, said the landowners were willing to settle the matter, he said: “What is the choice in face of the might of the state? What else can they do or say? Is (this) the way to exercise powers (under Section 17(4) of the Land Acquisition Act)?”

Section 17(4) allows a state government to dispense with a provision allowing the owner of land sought to be acquired to file an objection to persuade the state not to acquire it.

The villagers had lost their land to planned development of Noida. The state had dispensed with the landowners’ “objection” clause, mandatory under Section 5-A, on the ground of urgency.

The villagers moved the high court saying the state had no material to show the acquisition was urgent. They claimed it was land on which they had built houses 40 years ago and such homesteads were exempt from acquisition under the state’s own policy.

Their lawyers argued that the land of tenure-holders could not be forcibly taken by the state without giving them a hearing unless material was available to justify it.

But the court dismissed the plea saying they would have to prove the state did not apply its mind before waiving the objection clause. It said after 17 years of acquisition there was nothing to show that the state had a policy of not acquiring residential land.


The Telegraph, 21 September, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100921/jsp/nation/story_12961922.jsp


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