GUJARAT HIGH COURT DISMISSES THE FARMERS’ CHALLENGE AGAINST LAND ACQUISITION FOR BULLET TRAIN PROJECT

The Gujarat High Court on Thursday, in a 361 paged judgement rejected over 120 petitions of farmers challenging the land acquisition process for the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project.

Bullet trains between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will mark India’s shift to a generation of high-speed trains which will have the potential of hitting the speeds up to 350 km per hour. The government has set a deadline for completing the project by August 15, 2020, the day when India shall mark its 75 years of Independence.

Regarding the petitions by the farmers, the division bench of Justices A.S. Dave and Biren Vaishnav, said that the farmers can advance towards the authorities to seek more money for their land. The Court said that the farmers could cite the events where the National Highway Authority of India or any other such entity has offered higher compensation for acquiring land. The Court also upheld the validity of Land Acquisition Act, which was amended by the Gujarat government in 2016. The bench turned down the challenge to the constitutional validity of Section 10A read with Section 2(1) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Gujarat Amendment), 2016.

The petitioners have objected the state amendment, which twitched a 2013 central law. The High Court rejected the claims of the petitioners’ that the state government had no authority, whatsoever, to issue a land notice as the project was shared between Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The lawyer for the petitioners’, Anand Yagnik, declared that the farmers shall move to the Supreme Court against the order. “The High Court has observed that land acquisition is legally and constitutionally right. But it has kept issue of compensation open. So, this cannot be a full defeat of the farmers.”

A farmer’s body, the All Indian Kisan Sabha, called the order “unfortunate”. “But it is good that the farmers will move to the Supreme Court”, said the AIKS President, Ashok Dhawale.

The farmers have set forth that their land acquisition could not be initiated before looking through the land prices as provided under the 2013 act. They had also supposed that the compensation given to them were on the basis of the 2011 market rates.

Approximately, 6900 farmers will be affected by the bullet train project, out of which 60% have raised questions to the acquisition process. The project has faced rigid hostility from farmers and land owners from the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.

By-

Nandini Sharma

Student Reporter, INBA