The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to Gujarat government and four other states on a PIL challenging “amendments” made by them in the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. Advertising A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta issued the notices to Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Jharkhand on the petition by activist Medha Patkar. Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Prashant Bhushan said the amendments entitled the states to acquire land for large projects without undertaking any social impact assessment or considering objections of those likely to be affected. “Even though ‘land’ is a matter in the State list, the ‘acquisition and requisitioning of property’ finds place in the Concurrent list. The manner in which the Concurrent list works is that if there is a central law on any subject in the list, a state law cannot bypass the same. But the State Governments have passed Land Acquisition Acts and Rules for States by amending the provisions of the Central Act passed by Parliament and created conflict by violating the principle that the State Acts cannot override Central Acts, in the event of conflict the central legislation will prevail state laws, even though items are in concurrent list. These amendments made by the states are also destroying and violating the basic structure of the Central Act,” the petition submitted. Advertising The said amendments also diluted the provision for return of unutilised land. While the Central Act had a provision to return unutilised land if it remained unutilised for more than five years, almost all state amendments had tried to extend the period. It also made the collector a sole authority to make inquiry, the petition pointed out, adding that this amounted to suppressing people’s voices and increase corruption. For the interim, the plea requested the court to direct that the Central Act and Rules made thereunder would remain in force till the petition is adjudicated.

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