Observing that the Mangaluru City Corporation has failed to provide correct facts on persons affected by the Pachchanady landfill incident of 2019 and their rehabilitation, the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday directed the corporation to submit the entire records for inspection by the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum issued the direction after noticing inaccurate information on the number of persons who lost their property, livelihood and also, compensation paid to them.
The Division Bench issued the direction after pointing out varying particulars of the number of affected persons, lack of details on disbursement of ad hoc payment of compensation amount to eligible persons and the absence of material to show that the corporation had held proper adjudication to determine that 41 of persons are eligible to receive compensation.
Though the Advocate-General suggested to the court that a retired district judge can be appointed to determine the compensation payable to eligible persons, the Division Bench said that it can appoint a retired district judge only of the corporation files an undertaking that it would accept and pay the compensation amount to be determined by such an appointee.
Meanwhile, the Division Bench made it clear that the corporation will have to resort to Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013, if it wants to take over private land, covered with the garbage from the landfill. And, it should not force the owners to surrender their land.
