Land acquired under nullified law
Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 10: High Court has directed the authorities for additional compensation to the land owners for acquiring their land as the acquisition process was not initiated under the law which was in force after passing of Reorganization Act 2019.
The petitioner-land owners challenged the notification under which their land was acquired for road widening project on the ground that the same was issued by the Collector Land Acquisition under J&K Land Acquisition Act 1990 which was repealed with new law after passing of Reorganization Act 2019.
Their counsel contended before the court that no notification under Section 4(1) of the Act of 1990 could have been issued in the year 2022 for the reason that due to coming into operation of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019. He submitted the Act of 1990 had been repealed and replaced by Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, (RFCTLARR Act) after passing of Reorganization Act 2019.
Justice Sanjeev Kumar directed the authorities to enhance the compensation payable to the aggrieved-land owners under the award by 20% and recorded that this would meet the ends of justice and would be a sort of penalty to the respondents for not following the correct provisions of law.
“The concerned Collector shall issue the amended award and disburse the balance compensation, if any, payable to the petitioners, within a period of two months from today. It is, however, made clear that the petitioners or any of them, who is/are aggrieved of the determination of compensation as has been notified through final award, shall be free to seek reference under the Act 1990”, Court further said.
Court said that admittedly, the Act of 1990 stood repealed with the coming into operation of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019. The law which was in force on the date the proprietary land of the land owners was sought to be acquired was RFCTLARR Act. “I am in agreement with counsel for the petitioners that the proprietary land of the petitioners could not have been acquired under the repealed Act”, reads the judgment.
Sr. AAG while representing the authorities submitted that the acquisition proceedings in respect of land which was subject matter of impugned notification have been concluded and final award passed.
He submitted that even if the contention of the petitioners is upheld, it would be difficult to turn the clock back. To justify the issuance of impugned notification under the Act of 1990, the Sr. AAG submitted that the impugned notification issued in the year 2022 was not a new notification but was only in the shape of a corrigendum to the Section 4(1) notification issued on 28th of March, 2019.
Justice Kumar after having regard to the admitted position said, the Court would have been left with no option but to quash the entire acquisition proceedings which have culminated into issuance of final award.
Court however, having regard to the fact that the land acquired is meant for construction of the road which is of public importance said, it would not be in the interests of justice to set the clock back and direct the respondents to issue fresh notification for acquisition of the subject land.
“Since the acquisition proceedings in this case have already been completed and final award passed under the Act of 1990, which, as held hereinabove, was repealed on the date the impugned notification was issued, as such, it would be difficult, rather inadvisable at this stage, to set the entire acquisition process at naught”, Court said while taking a lenient view on wrongly acquiring the land in question by the authorities.
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