A full bench of the Allahabad High Court on Monday upheld its judgement quashing land acquisition in some villages of Gautam Buddh Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh for development of Noida, Greater Noida and Noida Extension and ordered greater compensation for landowners.
The bench comprising justices Ashok Bhushan, S.U. Khan and V.K. Shukla passed the order while turning down review petitions of Noida Authority and Greater Noida Authority and a number of farmers who were dissatisfied with the judgement delivered by a three-judge bench on October 21, 2011.
The court was of the view that the relief sought by the petitioners could not be provided through a review petition though they were free to file an appeal in the Supreme Court challenging the high court order.
The farmers had submitted that they wanted their land back instead of enhanced compensation as directed by the court and hence prayed that notifications whereby their land was acquired be set aside as was done in the case of those villages where possession of land was not effected and hence no development had taken place subsequent to the acquisition.
The Noida Authority and the Greater Noida Authority had challenged the quashing of land acquisition in Devla, Yusufpur, Chaksahberi and Asadullapur villages as well as the rate of compensation hike ordered by the court holding that it was not affordable.
The court had ordered that in villages where land acquisition was not quashed in view of development work having begun, the affected farmers shall be given an additional compensation which shall be around 65 per cent of the compensation already paid and that they shall be allotted 10 per cent of the developed plot on the land acquired from them.
In the order, the high court had come down heavily on the land acquisition policy of the then Mayawati government in the Uttar Pradesh, reprimanding it for repeatedly invoking the “urgency clause” under the Land Acquisition Act which deprived the land-owners an opportunity for hearing.