By IANS
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Tuesday decided to examine the controversial issue of acquisition of agricultural land for special economic zones (SEZs) and other industrial projects.
A bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, however, gave relief to industrialist Anil Ambani’s business house by ordering the deletion of its name as a respondent from a public interest lawsuit. The lawsuit has questioned the practice of acquiring cultivable land for setting up industrial projects.
On the public interest suit, filed by the Sahyog Samiti, a voluntary organisation representing the interests of affected farmers, the bench, which also included Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice J.M. Panchal, also issued notices to the central and the Uttar Pradesh governments.
The lawsuit also challenged the legality of the land acquisition for a mega-power project at Dadri near Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh being executed by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG).
For the execution of the gas-based thermal power generation project, the previous government of Uttar Pradesh led by Mulayam Singh Yadav had acquired nearly 903 hectares of agricultural land from farmers of seven villages in Ghaziabad district.
As per the notification issued for the purpose, the government had invoked Section 17(1) of the Land Acquisition Act, saying the land was required for the “public purpose” of setting up the power project.
The reference to Section 17(1) of the act deprived affected farmers of their right to file their objections against the land acquisition, the lawsuit noted.
With the apex court deleting the name of the ADAG as respondent from the petition, the business house got a relief and its counsel Mukul Rohtagi did not need to argue against the lawsuit.
“With the court ordering the deletion of the name of my client, I don’t have to say anything,” Rohtagi said.
The court ordered deletion of ADAG on the ground that the petition had not been filed by affected farmers per se.
The issue of land acquisition for industry led to violent protests in many cases during last year, especially in Nandigram of West Bengal.