CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has set July 14 deadline for the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to come up with a fresh timeline for completion of the process of acquiring land to construct a 3-km road as part of NH-23 in Sundargarh.The court said the process can be completed only after determining and disbursing compensation to the present owners of land which NHAI had scheduled for acquiring.
Nine persons had moved the High Court challenging NHAI’s notification for acquiring their land without compensation. The petitioners claimed that they were in peaceful possession of the land on which they had constructed buildings and had record of rights (RoRs) in their names.The court has taken up seven of the petitions so far and passed interim stay orders on any further demolition since January this year. While NHAI filed counter affidavits in the matter, the petitions were taken up for analogous hearing through video conference on June 10.
In the affidavit, the NHAI said the land presently occupied by the petitioners were in fact acquired by the State government in 1959 and subsequently, were sold by the erstwhile land owners to the present occupants. But the court was not impressed.The division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice KR Mohapatra observed, “The fact, however, remains that the NHAI proceeded on the basis of that the said land belonged to the petitioners and therefore, started a fresh acquisition process under the National Highways Act by issuing a notification on August 23, 2013.”
The bench further said, “Till that process of acquisition stands completed by determining and paying compensation payable to the petitioners, they cannot be expected to surrender possession of the lands in question.”As the NHAI’s counsel sought time to take instruction on how soon the competent authority will be able to complete the task of determining and disbursing the compensation, the court allowed him time till July 14, the date fixed for next hearing on the matter.
Around 30.13 acre land in Jamunanaki, Lungei and Gopapali villages under Lathikata tehsil in Sundargarh district was acquired by the government in 1959. The road was constructed on some portions of the acquired land, but the government never took physical possession over rest nearly 20 acre. As a result, RoRs of the land continued in the owners’ names.