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ShareNew Delhi: Even as Anil Ambani fights to get natural gas from elder brother Mukesh in the Supreme Court, his dream power project may have landed in trouble. A division bench of the Allahabad high court on Friday struck down on procedural grounds the acquisition of 2,500 acres of land for the gas-based project at Dadri.
The land was acquired in 2004 by the then state government, led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, invoking a special clause that bypassed the procedure of calling for objections.
The bench, comprising justices Ashok Bhushan and Sudhir Agarwal, ordered the district magistrate to repeat the exercise in the right manner. "All subsequent proceedings consequent to the notification dated 11 February, 2004... are quashed.
The Collector shall proceed with the inquiry under Section 5A in continuation of the notification dated 11 February, 2004, and proceed with the proceedings in accordance with the provisions of the Act," the bench ruled.
The court also struck down the second round of acquisitions, which started in 2006.
The petition was filed in 2008 by more than 300 farmers, who own almost a quarter of the total area acquired in 2004. They claimed that the state government did not follow the proper procedures laid down by Land Acquisition Act, especially with regard to hearing objections.
The high court directed the Ghaziabad collector to conduct the entire procedure again, including a hearing of objections.
"The farmers were dependent on the land for their livelihood... When there is large-scale acquisition of agricultural land of farmers, there has to be very strong reason for dispensation of inquiry," the court pointed out, adding that setting up a power project did not constitute that level of urgency.
It noted that the state government has not been able to place any urgent reason for not hearing farmers' complaints before the acquisition.
The farmers were compensated at the rate of around Rs7.26 lakh per acre. The bench noted that a large number of farmers, who held 70-75% of the total land, had already taken compensation and may be unnecessarily disturbed by the current order quashing the acquisition. To prevent it, the bench gave them the option of seeking exemption from the refund process.
"The petitioners [farmers] are liable to refund the compensation received from the respondents [the government of UP]. However, we provide that it shall be open for those tenure holders who have no objection to the acquisition to... seek exemption from the collector for refunding the compensation. The collector shall proceed to decide the objection... of only those tenure holders who have refunded the compensation," the court noted.
In a written response, the Anil Ambani group, known to be close to Mulayam Singh Yadav, tried to play down the impact of the judgment. "The state government has been directed by the Hon'ble court to follow certain procedures in the land acquisition process. As per the judgment, the land owners who wish to raise objections to the acquisition of their land are required to refund the compensation received by them and, thereafter, the government will decide on their objections," the statement said.
