Southern States
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Kerala
HC quashes acquisition of land
By Our Staff Reporter
KOCHI, DEC. 11. The Kerala High Court on Tuesday quashed a notification issued by the State Government acquiring lands of as many as 16 persons in Anthur Village in Taliparamba for setting up a tourism project of the Malabar Tourism Development Society.
Mr. Justice K. A. Abdul Gafoor, however, made it clear that if there was any specific request from the Kerala State Industries Infrastructure Development Corporation (Kinfra) or from the society, the State Government was free to issue fresh notification.
The proceedings were quashed as the court found that the acquisition was initiated not for any public purpose as defined in the Land Acquisition Act but for a company owned by the Malabar Tourism Development Society.
The court said that there were no circumstances for invocation of urgency provision. If the acquisition was done for the Kinfra, it would not be done for a company, but would be an acquisition for a public purpose.
Necessarily, the name of the re-acquisition authority should have been mentioned in the notification. Unfortunately, the notification did not contain any reference to the Kinfra. However, the notification was specific to the extent that the acquisition was initiated for setting up a tourism project by the society.
The court was of the opinion that if the land was acquired for a company, it would have to be done after inviting objections from the affected parties.
According to the petitioners, notification for acquiring their land had been initiated after invoking the emergency clause under Section 17(4) of the Land Acquisition Act.
The tourism project was going to be set up by a cooperative society (Malabar Tourism Development Society). The petitioners said that the project did not come within the public purpose as defined in the Act.
The society was setting up the project as a private concern. Therefore, it could not be termed as a public purpose.
The Kinfra had been appointed as a nodal agency for the acquisition of land identified by the society.
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