MADURAI: Irked by the delay in disbursal of compensation to people whose lands were acquired in 2017 for four-laning and strengthening of Oddanchatram-Dharapuram-Tiruppur Road (SH-37) as ordered by it, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court directed the state government to deposit the entire sale amount of Tasmac shops in Dindigul district to the credit of the Principal District Court, Dindigul, every day.
According to sources, the state’s sole government-owned liquor company has 542 shops in Dindigul district and the total average sale per day is around Rs 9 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.
A bench of Justices P Velmurugan and KK Ramakrishnan issued the direction on October 7 while verifying the compliance of an order passed by the bench on March 14 on a batch of appeals filed by the Dindigul collector and the Land Acquisition Officer concerned challenging the enhancement of compensation fixed by the latter for land acquisition for the road project. Nearly 1,01,451 square metres of land belonging to 20 people of Kallimandayam in Dindigul was acquired for the project in 2017.
The bench had reduced the compensation amount by modifying the uniform market value of Rs 5,390 per square metre fixed by the Principal District Judge, Dindigul, (Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Authority).
HC slams TN for not complying with order
The bench had further directed the collector to disburse the modified amount within two months. The matter was listed for reporting compliance on June 20, July 28 and August 26, September 1 and October 7. However, the government has not complied with the order till date, the judges noted.
During the hearing on October 7, the additional advocate general sought more time citing that the government is likely to file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the judgment before the Supreme Court.
Criticising that the government has neither complied with the order nor filed an SLP even after a lapse of more than six months, the judges passed the above order.
