The Madras High Court has set aside a notification of July last year seeking to acquire lands measuring 2 acres and 47 cents belonging to the Sri Venkateswara Educational and Charitable Trust here at Mathur village in Tiruvannamalai district.
Allowing a petition by the trust, Justice Vinod K.Sharma imposed costs of Rs.20,000 payable to the trust.
The petitioner sought to quash a notification of July 5 of the Secretary, Industries, SIPCOT (LA) Department, seeking to acquire the land and a subsequent order dated July 21 last year of the District Collector, Tiruvannamalai, directing the trust to hand over the land.
ADVERTISEMENT
The petitioner submitted that the land was meant for starting an engineering college, Saraswathi (Ramadoss) Engineering College. All steps were taken for establishing the institution. While so, by the impugned proceedings, the government sought to acquire the land for SIPCOT expansion programme. The trust sent a representation raising objections. There was no reply.
The Judge said the procedure adopted was totally contrary to the statutory requirement under section 3 of the Land Acquisition Act before issuing the notification. The notifications were further vitiated for the reason that no order was passed on the petitioner's representation. No material was available on record to show that the government considered the objections.
As the July 5 notification had been set aside, the second notification being the consequential notification also could not be sustained.
ADVERTISEMENT
The proceedings held and the procedure adopted showed that the petitioner had been unnecessarily harassed and the land was sought to be acquired by violating the statutory provisions rather than following them, the Judge said.