The Madras High Court has upheld the acquisition of land in various places in the city for the Chennai Metro Rail project, rejecting the contention raised by petitioners that the urgency provisions in the Land Acquisition Act had been invoked wrongly.
In the order, Justice Vinod K. Sharma said he found no force in the petitions. There could be no dispute with the proposition of law that urgency provisions could be invoked in a case of real emergency. The question as to whether there was a real emergency and urgency depended on the facts of each case.
The petitions related to acquisition of land on Anna Salai and in Anna Nagar and Saligramam.
The petitioners contended that the State government's notification under Section 4 and declaration under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act could not be sustained in law as there was no justification to invoke the urgency provisions.
Justice Sharma said the petitioners were associated and were informed that their area was likely to come in for acquisition. The petitioners' objections were also considered and an intimation was sent that the proposal could not be accepted, as in implementing such projects, several factors were considered.
The bona fides of the government in acquiring the land could not be doubted.
It had also been proved that urgency provisions in these cases had not been mechanically invoked, but in view of the real urgency. Steps had been taken to acquire a minimum of private land, which could not be avoided.
The Judge said it was also proved that as and when the necessity arose for acquisition, the notification under Section 4 was issued invoking the urgency clause.
It also could not be said that the State had slept over the matter from 2008 to 2011 or was in lethargic to hold that invoking of emergency clause was not bona fide.
