Supreme Court issues notice to five states to examine validity of amendments to Land Acquisition Act, 2013

The Supreme Court today issued notice to five States in a PIL challenging State amendments made to the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (Land Acquisition Act), 2013.

. The PIL filed by various activists, including Medha Patkar, challenges the amendments made to the Land Acquisition Act by the States of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Jharkhand.

. The case of the petitioner is that the amendments made by the five States are identical and go against the “ basic structure of the Central Act .”

. Advocate Prashant Bhushan , representing the petitioner, told the Bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta that the state amendments virtually exempt all land acquisition when the Central Act provides for safeguards against forcible acquisition.

. Bhushan submitted before the Court that the amendments made by the States are not in line with Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life with dignity.

. “ Right to life with dignity includes right not to be displaced “, Bhushan argued.

. As per the petition, various states introduced amendments to the 2013 Act by way of ordinances to exempt broad categories of land projects from consent provisions, social impact assessment, objections by affected citizens, participation of local bodies etc.

. Thereby, it is submitted, these amendments violate the fundamental rights guaranteed to citizens under Articles 14, 19(1)(g) and 21 of the Constitution. The petition notes that the projects so exempted are primarily linear category projects like industrial corridors, expressways, highways etc. Further, these amendments also dilute provisions concerning the return of unutilised land, states the petition.

. Challenging the states’ power to introduce such amendments, the petition has prayed for these amendments to be declared illegal and struck down by the Court.

. In order to examine the validity of the amendments made to the Central Land Acquisition Act, the Court has issued notice to five of the States named in the petition.

. Earlier this year, a Madras High Court Bench of Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad had also reserved orders in a batch of petitions raising similar concerns in view of amendments brought in by the Tamil Nadu government to the state Tamil Nadu Land Acquisition Act in 2015.

. By this 2015 amendment , a new Section 105A was inserted into the State’s Land Acquisition law to include three enactments into the Fifth Schedule of the 2013 Land Acquisition Act retrospectively from 2014. As a result, land acquisition by the State made under the Tamil Nadu Acquisition of Land for Industrial Purposes Act , the Tamil Nadu Highways Act and the Tamil Nadu Acquisition of Land for Harijan Welfare Act were exempted from the 2013 Act.

. Read the Order of the Supreme Court:

. Read the Writ Petition before the Supreme Court:

Supreme Court issues notice to five states to examine validity of amendments to Land Acquisition Act, 2013

Shruti Mahajan

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