The Allahabad High Court has taken a serious note of the eviction of farmers of nine villages including Bheekampur, Dayalpur, Tehsil and District Auraiya from the land acquired for the widening of Etawah Chakeri Kanpur National Highway and not depositing the compensation even after six years.
The Division Bench of Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Manjive Shukla heard the petition filed by Rajesh Chandra @ Rakesh and Another.
The petitioners herein, claim to be residents of House Bhikampur, Dayalpur, Tehsil and District Auraiya and stated to be owners of area 0.041 hectares situated at Mauza/ Pargana Bheekampur Tehsil and District Auraiya and claim that their names are recorded in the revenue records namely Khatauni for the fasli year 1428-1433.
A perusal of the copy of the Khatauni appended to the petition, indicates that the names of the petitioners, herein, have been shown as the owners of area 0.041 hectare.
The contention in the petition is that the land in question was acquired for the construction of National Highway widening of 2 lane to 4 lane NH-II, in the year 2015-2016. The notice under Section 3G (4) of the National Highway Act, 1956, fixing 7.5.2018 was issued to the petitioners inviting their objections by the competent authority.
It is further stated that in compliance with the said notice, petitioners approached the competent authority and submitted the revenue papers to put forth their claim for disbursement of compensation.
It was then transpired that the compensation for acquisition of area 0.041 hectare, plot in question has not been determined by the competent authority.
The contention is that though the construction of Highway has been completed but compensation has not been provided to the petitioners despite the fact that they have been approaching the respondents for a long time.
In the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the State respondents, pursuant to the order dated 30.11.2022 passed by the Court whereby reasons were called for from the competent authority to explain for non declaration of award for more than six years, it is admitted that area 0.008 hectares had been acquired for widening of NH-II from 4 lane to 6 lane.
The acquisition notifications were issued under Section 3A and 3D of the National Highways Act, 1956. Out of the land of total 37 villages acquired by the aforesaid notifications, the award for 28 villages had been declared and the proceeding for declaration of award for 9 villages had not been completed. Individual notices were issued to the tenure holders village-wise and the date of hearing fixed by the competent authority has been indicated of the counter affidavit of the State. It is stated therein that the objections of the tenure holders have been received and kept on record.
However, the stand of the State-respondents is that under Section 3B of the National Highways Act pertaining to the power of survey, it is provided that after issuance of the notification under Section 3A, the survey would be conducted by the authorised officer appointed by the Central Government. The power of survey includes inquiry/ investigation/ survey/ valuation and inspection of the site in question.
A perusal of the said statement made in the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the State indicates that for declaration of award of remaining 9 villages, a letter dated 09.12.2022 was issued by the competent authority to the Project Director NHAI to provide the valuation report. The stand is that since the valuation report has not been made available by the Project Director, NHAI, Kanpur, the award for the remaining 9 villages could not be declared.
From the contents of the counter affidavit of the State, noted above, it is more than evident that the letter dated 15.5.2017 was written by the competent authority to the Project Director, PIU, Kanpur to provide the valuation report of the things attached to the Earth and joint measurement survey report for the purposes of declaration of award. However, for 3 years, nothing has been done in the matter. The document dated 21.7.2020, appended with the counter affidavit of the State is the minutes of the meeting of the competent authority and the Project Director, NHAI Kanpur dated 21.7.2020, wherein it was noted that the compensation could not be determined for non-availability of the valuation report and there was agitation by the affected tenure holders. After one year of the said meeting, another communication dated 19.6.20221 was issued by the competent authority reiterating its earlier stand in the pending matters relating to making of award for acquisition of land from NH-II from 4 lane to 6 lane. Other communications dated 12.7.2021, 20.7.2021, 17.8.2022, 1.11.2022 and 9.12.2022 were then issued by the competent authority in this regard.
Having noted the above facts, by means of the order dated 27.1.2023, the required explanation of the Project Director, Project Implementation Unit, NHAI, 53 Basant Vihar, Naubasta, Kanpur by filing his personal affidavit to explain the delay caused in declaration of award and disbursement of compensation.
The Court noted at this juncture that the authorities have slept over the matter for a period of more than 3 years since after the notices were issued in the year 2018 and they were reactivated only when the petition has been filed.
The Court further required to go through the provisions of the National Highways Act, 1956 which provides the manner of acquisition of private properties/ lands for the purposes of construction of the National Highways. The provisions contained in Section 3A to 3H relate to the acquisition, declaration of award, dispossession of the tenure holders and determination of compensation to the persons interested in the affected lands.
The Court observed that,
In the case, it is an admitted fact of the matter that no award has been made within the meaning of Section 3G of the Act. There was, thus, no question of deposit of compensation under Section 3H (1). Taking note of the said fact, we raised a pointed query to the counsels for the respondents to answer as to how the tenure holders of 9 villages, including the village in question namely Bhikampur Tehsil and District Auraiya, whose land had been acquired for construction of Six Lane Etawah-Chakeri (Kanpur) Section NH-II from Km 323.475 to Km 483.68, have been dispossessed without there being any award or deposit of compensation with the competent authority. No answer is forthcoming from any of the respondents.
From a perusal of the affidavit filed on behalf of the competent authority and the Project Director NHAI at least, it is evident that they were writing letters for the purposes of valuation reports pertaining to the property attached to the earth.
As regards the situation of properties subject matter of acquisition, the land and things attached to the earth, survey, management inspection, inquiry must have been done prior to the preparation of the report by the competent authority for declaration under Section 3D, after dealing with the objections filed by the tenure holders.
The dispute between the competent authority and the project director was only with regard to the valuation of the things attached to the earth, namely the constructions existing over the acquired land, noted in the survey report prepared under Section 3B of the National Highways Act, 1956. We fail to understand as to why the award for the acquired land has not been prepared by the competent authority in accordance with the provisions of Section 3G even after issuing notices to the tenure holders in the year 2018, inviting their objections. The compensation for the things attached to the earth is in addition to the compensation for the acquired land.
The fact remains that the land holders of village Bheekampur, the land subject matter of dispute, herein, along with 8 other villages, had been dispossessed/ deprived of their landed property and the construction of National Highway-II between the aforesaid section of the road has been completed without payment of compensation to them, which is nothing but a clear violation to the constitutional mandate under Article 300-A of the Constitution of India.
The matter is to be inquired into by the Principal Secretary (Revenue), U.P Lucknow. The Court, therefore, call upon the Principal Secretary (Revenue) U.P Lucknow to conduct an inquiry into the matter for wherein the tenure holders of 9 villages, details of which have been given in the counter affidavit filed on behalf of respondents, have been dispossessed/ deprived of their landed property, without making any award in contravention of the constitutional mandate as also the the provisions of the National Highways Act, 1956.
In the said inquiry, the involvement of the officials of the National Highways authority, specially the Project Director, Project Implementation Unit, Kanpur, NHAI as also the District Level Authorities, specially the competent authority within the meaning of National Highways Act, 1956 shall be inquired into. The inquiry report shall be shared with the concerned Minister of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India, New Delhi and action against the guilty officials accordingly, shall be initiated both on the civil and criminal side. The inquiry report and the action taken against the guilty officials shall be submitted before the Court on the next date fixed, the Court said.
“In the meantime, the proceedings for preparation of award of 9 villages, noted above, shall be completed by the competent authority and the compensation determined shall be deposited by the NHAI.
It goes without saying that the financial loss caused to the State and the Central Government, if any, in the matter, on account of the delay in determination of compensation for the land holders due to levy of of interest on the amount determined under the award, shall be recoverable from the personal pockets of the guilty officials. Notice, in writing, inviting explanation of the guilty officials in that regard shall duly be given”, the order reads.
The Court has fixed the next hearing of the petition on April 4, 2023.