Gujarat HC Pulls State For Delaying Acquisition, Compensation Of Land Temporarily Acquired By ONGC Years Ago; 'Depriving Landholders'

The Gujarat High Court recently expressed its displeasure at the delay by the State authorities in processing the permanent acquisition of a land, already in the possession of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act. 

The court noted that the land in question had been acquired temporarily by ONGC years ago, "depriving" the landholders to use their lands. It also noted that it had made it clear that the acquisition in the instant case is only a process to validate the already acquired lands by the ONGC "without adopting the due process of law".

When the matter was listed on October 15, the AGP, placed the written instruction of the Collector & District Magistrate on record and submitted that a notice under Section 15 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act, 2013 was issued on August 21. It was submitted that the competent authority is waiting for the required 60-day period to pass, as mandated by the law, to consider any objections from individuals who maybe interested in the land which has been notified. 

Earlier, the high court, at the instance of the land holders "who have been deprived to use their lands", had directed ONGC to come out with a proposal on whether it requires the land in question permanently or would revert it back to the land owners.

Based on an "undertaking" given in an affidavit filed by the ONGC in February, 2024, deciding to permanently acquire the land, the Court had ordered the authorities to complete the acquisition process within three months. However, ONGC delayed submitting its proposal by one month, and the Revenue Department took an additional four months to issue the first notification under Section 10A of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act. 

A division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi then observed in its order “We have already expressed our dis-pleasure the way the matter is proceeded by the State authorities. The contention made today by the learned AGP of adhering to time line of 60 days provided under Section 15 of the Act, 2013 is again without any rationale for the simple reason that the acquisition in question is not an acquisition of a large piece of land and the land owners have been identified who are the petitioners before us and have agreed to the acquisition of lands in question on the undertaking given by the Deputy General Manager, ONGC. In this situation, we do not see any justifiable reason in the approach of the State authorities in postponing the matter of issuance of notification under Section 19 of the Act, 2013, whereafter only award for compensation can be made”. 

It observed that there was a "complete slackness" on the part of the State authorities in adhering to the procedure for acquisition of land in question which has been initiated on an undertaking given by the ONGC who is already in the possession of the lands in question.

The Court then ordered the State authorities to complete the process within the time line in the order of August 5  failing to which the court might take adverse view in the matter.

The Court further noted in the order that none of the petitioners have objected to the notice issued in August and according to Section 15(2) of the Land Acquisition Act, the Collector must prepare a report estimating the approximate cost of land acquisition for the government's decision. Once the State Government approves it, Section 19 of the Act requires the acquiring body to pay the specified amount for the land acquisition.

The court observed that there was "complete silence in the submission of the learned AGP appearing for the Collector" about the assessment of the cost of acquisition as and the deposits made by the acquiring body–ONGC, in accordance with the 2013 Act. 

"The result is that the proceedings of the acquisition are bound to be delayed as the declaration notification under Section 19 cannot be issued without the deposit of the estimated cost of acquisition by the acquiring body," the court said.  

The Court further observed “The Collector, Ahmedabad is answerable to this query of the Court. The fact remains that there is complete apathy on the part of the Officers of the State in expeditious undertaking of the acquisition proceedings, inasmuch as, the action of the State in making the acquisition would amount to only validating the illegal acquisition of the land in question on the part of the ONGC.”

The Court added that the Collector should take a practical approach regarding how to proceed with the acquisition, given the specific details of this case. There was no reason to wait for 60 days since the landholders, who are the petitioners, did not object and have agreed to the acquisition based on ONGC's assurances in the current proceedings, it added.

The court thereafter listed the matter on November 26 directing the Collector to file a compliance affidavit.

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