Land Acquisition Act

Land Acquisition Act

Introduction

Land acquisition in India refers to the procedure by which the Union or a state government in India acquires private land for industrialisation, the advancement of infrastructural facilities, or the urbanisation of privately owned land, and offers compensation to the impacted landowners as well as their rehabilitation and resettlement. 

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR), which went into effect on 1 January 2014, governs land acquisition in India. The Land Acquisition Act of 1894 controlled land acquisition in India up until 2013.

An ordinance with the formal mandate to “meet the dual objectives of farmer welfare; coupled with speedily satisfying the strategic and developmental demands of the country” was issued by the President of India on December 31, 2013. The Land Acquisition Act of 1894 helped institutionalise involuntary acquisition during the course of its 120-year existence, with little respect for the rights of individuals who were evicted from their lands and left without a means of subsistence, security, or community. Under this colonial statute, there was no effective consultation procedure, which was indicative of the larger premise supporting the whole law on land acquisition at the time, which was founded on the idea of eminent domain. The legislation’s tone assumed that the needs of the State for the common good would always take precedence over the interests of landowners and characterised them as tragic “victims of growth.”

History of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013

The Indian Government approved the Right of Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act, 2013. It was passed in order to provide transparent rehabilitation and resettlement processes and equitable compensation in the event of land acquisition. The former 1894 land acquisition Act has been repealed in favour of this one. Due to the gaps and openings in the previous land acquisition Act of 1894, this Act was passed. Its foundation was laid in 2007 when the UPA administration proposed the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill of 2007. The Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill of 2009 and the Land Acquisition Act of 2009 were then introduced in Parliament. Both Bills in Parliament have expired. After carefully examining the circumstances and problems surrounding the land acquisition, the National Advisory Council recommended the “National Development, Land Acquisition, Resettlement, and Rehabilitation Act.” as opposed to the two separate pieces of legislation, the Land acquisition (Amendment) Bill LARR, 2009 and the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2009. The LARR Bill, which was proposed in 2011 and then passed by the Parliament in 2013 to promote the cause, became law as a result.

This is a law that governs land acquisition and lays out guidelines for providing compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement to those impacted in India is the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act, 2013. The Act includes measures for equitable compensation for landowners who lose their property, more openness in the land acquisition process for industries, buildings, and infrastructure projects, and guarantees the rehabilitation of individuals who are impacted.

Applicability of the Land Acquisition Act, 2013

The government acquires property for its own use, possession, and control, including public sector enterprises. The land is acquired by the government with the ultimate goal of transferring it to private corporations for a specific public purpose. Projects involving public-private partnerships are included in LARR 2013, but those involving property acquired for state or national highway projects are not. The land is acquired by the government for declared and immediate use by private businesses for public purposes. Acquisitions made under 16 current laws are exempt from the terms of the Act.

Determination of the social impact of public purpose

Land may only be acquired for public purposes. The Act defines public purpose to include, among other things, defence and national security; government- and government-built roads, railways, highways, and ports; land for project-affected people; planned development and improvement of the village or urban sites; residential purposes for the poor and landless; etc. This is almost similar to the 1894 Act’s provisions. In some circumstances, getting the approval of 80% of the project’s affected individuals is necessary. These include buying land for the government to use for reasons other than those listed above, for public-private partnerships to utilise, and for private corporations to use.

Section 5

The appropriate government shall ensure that a public hearing is held in the affected area whenever a social impact assessment is required to be prepared pursuant to Section 4, after providing adequate publicity regarding the date, time, and venue for the public hearing, in order to ascertain the opinions of the affected families to be recorded and included in the social impact assessment report.

Preliminary notification

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act of 2013 states that the acquisition process starts with the issue of preliminary notification. A preliminary notification under Section 11 in rural or urban areas shall be issued if it seems to the appropriate government that land in any area is necessary or likely to be required for any public purpose.

Publication of notification

The preliminary notification must be published in the manner described below:

1. Published in the Official Gazette;
2. In two daily newspapers published in the specified area, one of which must be in the local dialect;
3. In the language spoken locally in the offices of the District Collector, Sub Divisional Magistrate, and Tehsil, as well as in the Panchayat, Municipality, or Municipal Corporation;
4. Displayed on the appropriate Government’s website;

In every case of land acquisition, the concerned Gram Sabha or municipality must be notified of the details of the notification issued at a meeting specifically scheduled for this purpose as soon as it is issued. 

The notification that will be sent out must include information about the land that will be acquired, a description of the public purpose that will be served, the reasoning for the need to relocate the affected parties, a summary of the Social Impact Assessment Report, and information about the administrator who will be in charge of rehabilitation and resettlement.

Restraint on transaction

From the date of publication of the preliminary notice until the conclusion of the acquisition procedures, no one may transact on or cause to be transacted on any of the lands indicated in the notification. According to the proviso the Collector may, upon the owner of the land so notified in the application, exempt such owner from the application of this limitation under unusual circumstances that are documented in writing. However, the Collector shall not be liable for any damage or harm incurred by any person as a result of his wilful breach of this article.

Survey of land 

Section 12 outlines the preliminary survey of land and gives officers the authority to do it. It should be legal for any officer, either generally or expressly authorised by such Government in this regard, and for his servants and labourers, in order to enable the appropriate Government to decide the area of land to be acquired.

1. to access any land in such area and survey and level it;
2. to drill or dig into the soil;
3. to carry out any additional actions required to determine whether the land is suitable for such a purpose;
4. to outline the boundaries of the land that is being considered for acquisition and the anticipated path of any proposed activity (if any); and
5. to mark such levels, borders, and lines by planting markers and digging trenches; and, in cases where the survey cannot be finished, levels taken, boundaries indicated, or clear away any part of a standing crop, fence, or jungle away.

Restriction

No action under sections (a) to (e) relating to land may be taken without the owner of the land or without a person authorised in writing by the owner being present. If the owner has been given a reasonable chance to be present during the survey and has been given at least sixty days’ notice, the survey may be conducted without the owner’s presence.

Compensation for damages

According to Section 13, the officer is required to cover any damage at the time of entry pursuant to Section 12. It is compensation for the intended harm. Damage is any harm done to land while surveying it or performing other tasks required to determine if it may be used for a public purpose.

If there is a disagreement over whether the sum paid is sufficient, the officer must immediately report the matter to the Collector or another district chief revenue officer, whose judgment is binding.

The fundamental rule that no man’s property may be acquired without providing him with a fair opportunity to be heard is upheld by Section 15. The major goal of sending out a preliminary notification is to solicit any objections, if any, from the owners or other parties with an interest in the property, giving them a chance to voice their grievances with the government’s plan to acquire their holdings. According to Section 15(1), any party with an interest in land that has been informed that it is necessary or likely to be required for a public purpose may object to the notice within 60 days of the preliminary notification’s publication date.

1. the size and appropriateness of the land that is intended to be acquired;
2. provided justification for a public purpose;
3. the Social Impact Assessment report’s conclusions.

Report on the remarks

Every objection must be submitted in writing to the collector. The Collector shall provide the objector with an opportunity to be heard in person or by any person authorised by him or by an Advocate, and shall submit a report to the appropriate Government containing his recommendations on the objections, along with the record of the proceedings held by him, as well as a separate report providing therein the approximation of the cost of land acquisition, details regarding the number of affected families likely to be relocated, for the decision to be made. 

If concerns are raised, the collector will take them into account and, in his report to the government, propose a course of action. The collector is required to provide a report if no objections are raised. The government is then given the green light to continue. According to Section 15(3), the competent government’s decision regarding the objections is binding.

Scheme for rehabilitation and resettlement

The Administrator must prepare the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Scheme in accordance with Section 16 The Administrator for Rehabilitation and Resettlement is responsible for conducting a survey and doing a census of the affected families following the issuance of the preliminary notification by the Collector.

• details on the lands and other immovable property each impacted household is buying;
• livelihoods lost for those who are landless and who depend heavily on the lands being acquired;
• a list of public utilities, government structures, amenities, and infrastructure that are impacted or are anticipated to be impacted, where relocation of impacted families is concerned;
• information on any resources that are obtained as common property.

Drafting the scheme

The Administrator must create a draft Rehabilitation and Resettlement Scheme based on the prior survey and census, which must include the following:

• The specifics on each landowner’s and landless person’s rehabilitation and resettlement rights when impacted households are being relocated and their livelihoods are substantially based on the acquired lands;
• The draft must specify a deadline for the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Scheme’s implementation.

Specifics about the government structures, amenities for the general public, and infrastructure facilities that must be supplied in the resettlement area must be made known locally by holding a public hearing in the impacted region before being considered in the relevant Gram Sabhas or Municipalities.

After the public hearing is over, the administrator must give the collector the draft of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Scheme, along with a detailed report on the claims and objections made during the hearing.

In accordance with Section 17, the Collector must consult the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Committee established under Section 45 at the project level on the draft scheme that the Administrator has provided. The proposed Rehabilitation and Resettlement Scheme will be submitted by the Collector along with his recommendations to the Commissioner of Rehabilitation and Resettlement for approval.

If the plan is approved, the Commissioner is required by Section 18 to make the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Scheme publicly available in the following ways:

• In the local language to the Tehsil, the District Collector, the Sub-divisional Magistrate, and the offices of the Panchayat, Municipality, or Municipal Corporation, as applicable;
• In the areas impacted;
• Posted on the appropriate government’s website.

Declaration

A final statement dismissing the claims will be made by the appropriate authorities following consideration of any objections that have been raised. According to Section 19 of the new Act, the authority must publish the final declaration within 12 months of the date the preliminary notification under Section 11 of the Act was issued.

When the appropriate government determines that a certain piece of property is required for a public purpose, it must be declared as such, together with a designated area known as the “resettlement area” for the purposes of rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected families, under the hand and seal of the Secretary to the government or of any other officer duly authorised to certify its orders, and different declarations may be made from time to time in respect of different parcels of any land covered by the same preliminary notification.

Publication of the declaration

Every declaration must be published in the manner described below:

1. Published in the Official Gazette;
2. In two daily newspapers published in the area, one of which must be published in the local language;
3. At the Panchayat, Municipality, or Municipal Corporation, as appropriate, as well as at the District Collector, Sub-divisional Magistrate, and Tehsil offices;
4. Posted on the appropriate Government’s website.

Summary of rehabilitation and resettlement scheme 

A summary of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Scheme and a statement must be published by the Collector. But unless the summary of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Scheme is published alongside it, no disclosure under this shall be made.

Additionally, the “requiring body” is required to provide a deposit equal to or greater than the cost of acquiring the land, as determined by the respective authority.

According to Section 3(zb), a “requiring body” is any company, body corporate, institution, or other organisation for which land is to be acquired by the appropriate government. This definition also includes the appropriate government if the land is being acquired for the government’s own use or for later transfer to a company, body corporate, institution, or other organisation for a public purpose.

The Court ruled in Habib Ahmed v. State of UP that the acquisition of the property was not necessary for a public purpose, and hence neither the notification nor the declaration could be revoked. The state government must be the exclusive authority to determine whether the land is needed for a public purpose or not.

Lapse of notification

If a declaration is not submitted within 12 months after the preliminary notification date, the notice will be presumed to be revoked. According to the proviso, any time during which the land acquisition procedures were stalled due to a stay or injunction by a court order will be disregarded for calculating the 12-month timeframe. If the appropriate government determines that there are reasons to justify doing so, it may decide to extend the 12-month period. In this case, the decision must be made in writing, notified, and published on the authority’s website. After making the declaration, the appropriate government may acquire the land in the manner described by this Act. The declaration shall be conclusive proof that the land is necessary for a public purpose.

Statement to collector

According to Section 22, the collector may also require any interested party to make or deliver to him a statement within 30 days that includes the name of every other person who has an interest in the land or any part of it as a co-proprietor, sub proprietor, mortgagee, tenant, or in any other capacity, as well as information about the type of interest they have, as well as any rents and profits they have received or are due for the three years immediately prior to the date of the statement. 

According to Section 175 (omission to produce a document to a public servant by a person legally bound to produce it) and 176 (omission to give notice or information to a public servant by a person legally bound to give it) of the Indian Penal Code, everyone who is required to make or deliver a statement to the Collector shall be deemed to be legally bound to do so.

According to the 2013 Act, the minimum payment must be a multiple of the assessed market value of the property, the value of any attached assets, and a settlement equivalent to 100% of the assessed market value of the property, including the value of any attached assets.

Compensation under the Act

According to Section 23, the collector must investigate the objections that any interested party has raised in response to a notice given under Section 21 and the respective interests of the people requesting compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement, and he must then issue an award under his signature of-

1. The actual land area;
2. The compensation calculated in accordance with Section 27 and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Award calculated in accordance with Section 31 and which in his opinion should be allowed for the land; and
3. The distribution of the compensation among all parties, whether or not they have individually appeared before him, who are known to have an interest in the land or of whose claims he is aware.