PRAYGRAJ: The Allahabad High Court has warned the state authorities against the use of land of private citizens without following the proper legal procedure of acquisition. A division bench of Justices Manoj Kumar Gupta and Anish Kumar Gupta said in case of any default while taking land of the owner, heavy penalty would be imposed on the erring officers.
Allowing the plea of one Kanyawati from Bareilly district, the court said, “The state authorities are required to be cautious that they should not utilise the land of the citizens without due authority of law or without following the proper procedure of acquisition.”
Else, the court said, the authorities if found responsible for such utilisation of land without due procedure of law should be held responsible personally and the court will have to impose “heavy penalty” on the authorities, which would be recovered from their personal account.
Kanyawati had purchased a piece of land in Bareilly district. At the time of the purchase, the revenue record reflected Chak Road to be south of the petitioner’s plot.
The road was subsequently widened and a portion of her land was acquired without due compensation.
Upon an RTI inquiry, the petitioner was informed there was no record for any acquisition proceedings for petitioner’s land.
Despite repeated representations to the authority for compensation, the petitioner received no response.
She later moved the high court and her petition was disposed of with a direction to “the district magistrate- Bareilly to refer the matter to the district level committee in terms of the government order of May 12, 2016 for the determination of entitlement of compensation.
The district level committee rejected her claim stating that initially the road was 3-metre wide and an extra 2.5 metre was available on both sides, therefore, by widening the road 1.25 metre, no individual right of the tenure holder was infringed.
She against moved court with the present plea.
The court observed the initial road was developed by the Sugar Industry and Cane Development Department around 20 years ago without any acquisition and it was subsequently widened by the PWD by taking away a certain portion of petitioner’s land without proper acquisition process.
Having perused the Tehsildar report, the court held the Constitution granted the right to property under Article 300A and prohibited deprivation of property without following due procedure of law.
“The land of a person cannot be acquired without payment or due compensation in accordance with law. There is no concept of implied consent for utilising the land of a citizen without following the due procedure and without payment of compensation. The property of a citizen can be acquired for public purposes on payment of reasonable compensation in accordance with law,” the bench said.
While noting the petitioner ran from “pillar to post” to determine how her land was acquired by the PWD, the court held she was entitled to compensation in accordance with the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.
The court in its judgment dated March 4, 2025 directed the district level committee to determine the compensation of the land of the petitioner taken for road widening and pay the same within a period of four weeks along with interest as provided in the said Act.
