‘Clear Violation Of Article 300A’: Allahabad High Court Directs Probe Against NHAI For Delaying Compensation

The bench of Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Manjive Shukla passed this order on a plea moved by two such landholders whose pieces of land were acquired in 2016, however, no compensation for the same was awarded to them even when the highway has already been constructed.

In its order, the Court made a categorical observation that the aggrieved landholders had been dispossessed/ deprived of their landed property and since the construction of the National Highway has been completed without payment of compensation to them, the same amounted to a clear violation to the constitutional mandate under Article 300-A of the Constitution of India.

Hence, the Court ordered that an inquiry into the matter be conducted. The Court said:

“We, therefore, call upon the Principal Secretary (Revenue) U.P. Lucknow to conduct an inquiry into the matter for wherein the tenure holders of 9 villages, details of which have been given in the table extracted in para-'6' of the counter affidavit filed on behalf of respondent nos. 3 & 4, have been dispossessed/ deprived of their landed property, without making any award in contravention of the constitutional mandate as also the provisions of the National Highways Act, 1956”

Further, the Court specifically ordered that in the said inquiry, the involvement of the officials of the National Highways authority, especially the Project Director, Project Implementation Unit, Kanpur, NHAI as also the District Level Authorities, especially the competent authority within the meaning of National Highways Act, 1956 shall be inquired into.

“The inquiry report shall be shared with the concerned Minister of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India, New Delhi, and action against the guilty officials accordingly, shall be initiated both on the civil and criminal side,” the Court further ordered.

The inquiry report and the action taken against the guilty officials shall have to be submitted before the Court on the next date fixed (April 3).

The Court has also clarified that the financial loss caused to the State and the Central Government, if any, in the matter, on account of the delay in the determination of compensation for the landholders due to the levy of interest on the amount determined under the award, shall be recoverable from the personal pockets of the guilty officials

The case in brief

Essentially, the pieces of land were acquired in the year 2015-26 for the purpose of widening a two-lane highway into a four-lane.

A notice inviting objections was issued in 2018. Though the petitioners (along with people from 8 other villages) approached the competent authority, no compensation was declared to them, even after the construction over the acquired land was completed.

Therefore, the two petitioners approached the High Court wherein the state submitted that since the valuation report has not been made available by the Project Director, NHAI, Kanpur, the award for the 9 villages could not be declared.

During the court proceedings, the bench noted that the concerned authorities slept over the matter for a period of more than 3 years after the notices were issued in the year 2018 and they were reactivated only when the present writ petition has been filed

The Court also noted that the concerned authorities who were responsible for preparing the award and paying compensation to the landowners were shifting the blame on each other.

Consequently, the Court ordered that the process of determining of the compensation to be paid to the landholders in the nine villages, be completed.