CHENNAI: The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition filed by Tamil Nadu government which had questioned the compensation paid to six land owners for acquisition of 6550 square metres of land for MRTS Phase-II extension project Velachery to St Thomas Mount.
After five judgements were passed in the favour of landowners by asking the state to pay the market value as well as compensation as per the new land acquisition Act to the landowners and even a Government Order was also passed, the state approached the Supreme Court which in its order on Wednesday stated, "We are not inclined to interfere in these Special Leave Petitions. The Special Leave Petitions are dismissed accordingly, leaving all contentions raised in the Special Leave Petition open. Pending applications, if any, stand disposed of."
This clears the last legal hurdle thus paving the way for implementation of the project which has been delayed for nearly 10 years. The MRTS section has a potential capacity of transporting 425,000 passengers a day.
The 15-km alignment covers several significant landmarks of the city and currently has 18 stations. The Phase II extension of 5 km, when completed, will add three more stations linking the Chennai Metro corridors with MRTS and suburban rail network.
Since the MRTS project is being implemented by the state government, Union government with the share of 66.67: 33.33 which includes land acqqusition, the state planned to take possession of the land so as to allow MRTS and CMRL alignment in the stretch.
Official sources said that the project will now happen after the ratification of Rs 51.71 crore incurred by CMDA towards land acquisition following the Supreme court judgement.
The state approached the Supreme court challenging the compensation following the advise of advocate general who stated that since the amount is disputed by CMDA, papers should be immediately sent to Counsel on Record in the Supreme court so that expeditious steps may be taken to file the appeal.
K Velusamy, one of the landowners, told Express that after the Madras high court judgement, the state government passed a Government Order on June 12, 2019, where in it fixed the compensation value of the land as per the Madras High Court judgement based on guideline Value of January 1, 2014 as Rs 4,500 and Rs 3,500.
Apart from that, a 100 per cent solatium for land, buildings and trees was fixed along with 12 per cent additional market value for land, per year for five years (60 per cent of the land value). "The overall enhanced compensation to be paid to the landowners is Rs 51.71 crore," says 78-year-old former railway employee and a heart patient.
This was challeneged by Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority despite five judgements were passed in our favour. CMDA has urged the Apex court to issue an order for refund of excess amount deposited in compliance of order dated November 16, 2020 and December 16, 2020. "For the reason that landowners similarly placed have received far less compensation than these landowners," it had contended.
"It is a total waste of money including legal expenses from state exchequer. If they had earlier paid the amount, the officials could have saved orred on the compensation and by now the project would have been completed. The state was never keen to pay us the compensation," said Velusamy.
It was in February 2011, the government invoked urgency clause of land acquisition following which the land owners approached the court for fair compensation under the new land acquisition act.
The special tahsildar of land acquisition fixed the compensation amount and issued award notice but the land owners objected to it as the land price fixed was lower than the earlier land price fixed as per the old land acquisition act.
This resulted in a stay by Madras High Court and on October 4, 2018, the court constituted a negotiation committee comprising of Member secretary Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, chief engineer construction, Southern Railways and the Chennai district collector. They were directed to submit a report to the court within two months.
The revised compensation was worked out and Negotiation committee offered Rs 8,422 per square feet as compensation. On November 26, 2018, the compensation was turned down by petitioners who demanded compensation based on 2014 guideline value.
On November 29, 2018, the second meeting was convened where in the maximum compensation to be given will be Rs 8,422 per square feet including 225 per cent of market value. The petitioners rejected the Committee's proposal and submitted representation for higher compensation of Rs 12,375 per square feet.
The High Court then intervened and directed to take the date for calculation of market value of the new land acquisition act (January 1, 2014) based on the clarification given by Department of Land Resources, Union government and Supreme Court to pass the award.
Based on this the guideline value for the land as on January 1, 2014 was fixed at Rs 4,500 and Rs 3,500. Apart from that, a 100 per cent solatium for land, buildings and trees was fixed along with 12 per cent additional market value for land, per year for five years (60 per cent of the land value).