By IANS,
New Delhi : In a major setback for the Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court Wednesday upheld an Allahabad High Court verdict and quashed the acquisition of land in Shahberi village of Greater Noida.
An apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly held that the acquisition of 156 hectares of village land under the emergency provisions of the Land Acquistion Act (Section 19) was bad in law.
The Bahujan Samaj Party government had taken over the land in Shahberi village under the emergency provisions of the act under which the land owners were denied the right to be heard.
Dismissing the petitions by Greater Noida Authority (GNA) and several private builders against the June verdict of Allahabad High Court, the court also fined the GNA Rs.10 lakh.
There was no justification for invoking emergency provisions to acquire the land when 60 percent of the already acquired land had not been utilised by the state, the bench said.
The court also suspected the manner in which land rules were changed from industrial to residential purposes.