Acquisition of land for highway project challenged

Madurai

A senior citizen has challenged the notification for acquisition of land for a proposed National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) project coming up near Manthikulam in Madurai district. The appeal has been preferred against a single bench order that had dismissed his earlier petition.

The appellant, K. Chellapandian, a resident of Manthikulam, said a notification was issued in April 2018 under the National Highways Act to develop a stretch of 30 km. The notification called for objections from owners. The appellant said that the notification was vague as it did not specify the land to be acquired, leaving the land owners in the dark.

This rendered it impossible for land owners to submit their objections to the proposed acquisition as they did not know if their land would be acquired for the project.

The appellant said that he, along with other residents, had petitioned the Collector in this regard. However, they were told that if no objections were raised, the acquisitions would go ahead. Without a clue if their lands would be acquired or not, objections were raised, the appellant said.

He said that the competent authority, instead of hearing the public, asked the residents to sign a consent letter. Appalled by this, the residents left the venue without signing the letter. However, they were informed that the alignment for the project was decided by experts.

A single bench had held that the notification was not vague and the details of the land plan could have been obtained at the office of the competent authority. As the notification had mentioned the survey number and the total extent of land to be acquired, the petition was dismissed.

The appeal was preferred against the order as the respondents were taking steps to acquire land for the project, the appellant said and sought a stay of all further proceedings.

During the course of the hearing, NHAI submitted that no steps would be taken during the pendency of the appeal. A Division Bench of Justices K. Ravichandrabaabu and Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy adjourned the hearing to September 16.