Do it right, for sake of land acquisition

In a densely populated developing country like India, there are competing demands on land – farming, housing, infrastructure development and factories. This, on more occasions than one would like, has led to conflicts. According to Land Conflict Watch, there are 781 land conflicts, affecting 9.4 mn people and ₹3.11 tn investments. In this context, last week’s Supreme Court judgment on land acquisition is significant. Delivering its order in a case involving the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, the apex court said that seven sub-rights of Article 300A – right to notice, right to be heard, right to a reasoned decision, duty to acquire for public purpose, right of restitution or fair compensation and duty of the state to restitute and rehabilitate, right to an efficient and expeditious process, and right of conclusion – mark the real content of the Right to Property. Non-compliance will amount to a violation of the right.

This is a welcome judgment. But it must not be construed that the top court is putting a question mark on land acquisition per se. Instead, it is reiterating that these sub-rules need to be followed if the state and industry want to ensure a time-bound acquisition for projects to reduce project delays. India, unfortunately – especially under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 – has had a history of executive failure to ensure proper compensation to landowners.

Transparency improved significantly after the passage of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013. But it is still a work in progress. With land demand rising and climate change rendering large tracts unusable, it is imperative that the acquisition process is as per law, and that compensation is fair and time-bound. Otherwise, these regular conflicts will singe the economy and give the kind of signals India can’t afford to give out at this stage.