Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, May 1: The High Court today held that all land required for construction of the prestigious Srinagar Ring Road be acquired under the National Highways Act.
Division Bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Puneet Gupta while deciding a batch of petitions filed by a number of villages seeking revised compensation for acquiring their hundreds of kanals of land for the project, directed the authorities to enhance the compensation payable to the land owners by 20 percent further.
The land owners of as many as 20 villages, whose land had come under acquisition for construction of a semi ring road being constructed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) from Pampore to Sonawari are before this Court in these petitions.
“This would meet the ends of justice and would be a sort of penalty to the respondents for not following the due process of law. The concerned Collectors shall issue the amended awards and disburse the balance compensation, if any, payable to the land losers (interested persons) within a period of two months from today”, read the judgment
The DB, however, has made it clear that the land owners or any of them, who is aggrieved of the determination of compensation as may be notified through amended awards shall be free to seek reference under the State Land Acquisition Act, 1990.
“The reference, however, shall be limited to the seeking of enhancement in basic compensation. Additional compensation to the extent of 20%, as provided by us, shall not be part of any dispute or debate before any forum subordinate to this Court”, the Bench clarified.
While referring to the availability of Reorganization Act 2019, the DB has held that Srinagar Ring Road is a part of National Highways project then in terms of communication of Government of India, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways bearing dated 28.12.2017, the land required for national highways project is required to be acquired under the provisions contained in Section 3A of the NH Act, 1956.
The National Highways Act, court said, excludes the applicability of the Central Land Acquisition laws and for a good reason because the National Highways Act, is a complete code in itself and provides for acquisition of land required for National Highways project and determination of payment of compensation to the land losers.
“The NH Act, also provides for determination of disputes, if any, raised by either of the parties in respect of the amount of compensation or other related issues of acquisition. In view of this, the petitions succeed to the extent that the process of acquisition embarked upon by the respondents is found to be without jurisdiction”, Court concluded.
Court said the Collectors Land Acquisition appointed under the State Land Acquisition Act, were not competent to acquire the land and determine compensation therefor for the building, construction, management and operation of the National Highways.
Since acquisition in these cases have been completed and the final awards passed under the State Land Acquisition Act, which, as DB has held, was not in consonance with law but court said, it would be difficult rather inadvisable to set the clock back.
Court Further added that most of the villagers affected by land acquisition have already received compensation and possession of acquired land has been taken and a major portion of it has been utilized for construction of the ring road.
“The Srinagar Ring Road project is a very prestigious project envisioned by the Government of India in larger public interest. We could have directed the authorities to atleast re-determine the compensation payable to the petitioners and other land losers by following the provisions of the National Highways Act, 1956 i.e. Section 3A to 3J and pay the additional compensation, if any, to the land losers but we are sure that the determination of compensation under National Highways Act, in the absence of applicability of RFCTLARR Act, 2013, may not be much beneficial to the petitioners”, read the judgment.
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