KOCHI: The state government on Wednesday filed an appeal before a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court against a single judge’s interim order directing it to defer the steps for the survey of land for the SilverLine project on the property of certain persons, who approached the court challenging the survey.
The appeal pointed out that the government had submitted before the single judge that the present survey is being conducted only for a Social Impact Assessment study. Therefore, provisions of the Fair Compensation Act could not be resorted to demarcate the property. However, the single judge ordered to defer the steps for surveying the land.
The single judge while issuing the order on a batch of petitions had observed that various aspects involved in these cases were of grave importance and amplitude, one among them, namely, as to how a survey is being conducted by government agencies. Going by the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act, 2013, action for acquisition ‘will have to follow the mandatory statutory scheme.’
The single judge had also observed that since the state claimed that a DPR had already been prepared and that an ‘in-principle’ approval has been given by the Railway Board to them, the court failed to understand why a survey under the ‘Survey and Boundaries Act’ is now being conducted in this manner.
Social Impact Assessment
The appeal pointed out that the government had submitted before the single judge that the present survey is being conducted only for the Social Impact Assessment. Therefore, provisions of the Fair Compensation Act could not be resorted to demarcate the property.