Revisit century-old Act, Bench asks Parliament, Law Commission  Expressing concern over the plight of farmers and others whose rights are affected when their land is acquired for development, the Supreme Court has said there is need for Parliament and the Law Commission to revisit the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, which is more than a century old. Acquisition affects the vital rights of farmers and gives rise to litigation and agitations, said...

Welcoming the proposal by the Railways for setting up a coach manufacturing unit on the land that was earlier acquired by the State government for Tata Motors’s small car project which was subsequently relocated from Singur, the State’s Industries Minister, Nirupam Sen told the West Bengal Assembly here on Wednesday that it was one case with a hope of achieving consensus in the State on setting up industry. According to...

Allahabad High Court today partly quashed the acquisition of 2,500 acres for Anil Ambani’s jinxed Dadri power project, rekindling memories of the Singur dispute. A high court division bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan and Sudhir Agarwal quashed the land purchase by the Uttar Pradesh government in 2004 under emergency provisions of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. The court noted that the state government had failed to record the objections...

The UPA government has come under severe criticism for trying to hurriedly pass the Land Acquisition (amendment) and the Resettlement & Rehabilitation Bill during the ongoing Parliamentary session. Both the bills have been dubbed as anti-poor as their provisions are seen to promote forced dispossession of farmers’ land as well as large scale displacement of rural people. The haste with which the two Bills are being promoted could be assessed...

The article presents the political and economic impacts of various kinds of natural and man-made disasters and associated displacement of populations, and argues for a wider and more inclusive definition of disasters in the interest of human rights, social justice and equity for the victims of disasters. Legislation, Disasters and People Numerous disasters at national and international levels have caused governments to recognise the need for rapid and effective response to provide...