Madras High Court agrees to hear case filed by farmer for return of his lands acquired by Neyveli Lignite Corporation

Justice S.M. Subramaniam accepted a request for an urgent hearing on the afternoon of Monday, July 31, 2023, since the farmer wanted the court to restrain NLC from taking possession of the land and destroying his standing crops

A scene outside NLC India Ltd, where the PMK staged protests on July 28, 2023 | Photo Credit: S. Prasad

The Madras High Court on Monday, agreed to hear this afternoon (July 31, 2023), an urgent writ petition filed by a farmer from Valayamadevi Melpathi village in the Bhuvanagiri Taluk, Cuddalore district, to restrain the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) India Ltd., from taking possession of his fertile lands until the harvest due in two months.

Justice S.M. Subramaniam accepted a request made by advocate K. Balu to move a lunch motion on behalf of his client V. Murugan, who also insisted on his lands being returned to him now, since they were acquired way back in 2007 but had not been used all these years for the purpose for which they were acquired.

The farmer relied upon Section 24 (2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 to contend that he was entitled to seek a return of his acquired lands since NLC had not taken possession of those lands for many years and he had continued to raise crops on them.

Section 24(2) states if land had been acquired under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894, five years prior to the commencement of the 2013 Act, but its physical possession had not been taken, then the said land acquisition proceedings should be deemed to have lapsed and the government can initiate fresh proceedings under the 2013 Act.

The petitioner claimed that his case and also that of several other famers who own around 50,000 acres of land would fall under this legal provision and yet, the NLC had all of sudden entered into their farmlands now and had begun to destroy the standing crops on those lands without even granting the farmers time till the harvest.

Last week, the PMK led a protest in the region against the takeover of acquired wetlands lands by NLC India Ltd. The protest turned violent after the arrest of PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss. On Sunday, P.R. Pandian, president of the Coordination Committee of All Farmers Associations of Tamil Nadu, was stopped by the police from visiting Valayamadevi, where fertile lands were destroyed by NLC India for its expansion projects.