THE LAND ACQUISITION (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2007 - PRS

12STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONSThe Land Acquisition Act, 1894 (the Act) has been an affective instrument for theacquisition of land for public purposes and also for companies, yet its provisions have beenfound to be inadequate in addressing certain issues related to the exercise of the statutorypowers of the state for involuntary acquisition of private land and property.2. Often, such acquisition of land leads to displacement of people, depriving them oftheir livelihood and shelter, restricting access to their traditional resource base, and uprootingthem from their socio-cultural environment. These have traumatic, psychological and socioculturalconsequences for the affected population, which call for protecting their rights,including those of the weaker sections of society, particularly tribals, tenants, etc.Rehabilitation and resettlement of the persons and families affected by involuntary acquisitionof private land and immovable property is of paramount importance. Thus, it is necessary toextend the provisions of the extant policies or statutes for rehabilitation and resettlement ofthose affected by the acquisition of land under the Act.3. Also, the ambit of the expression "person interested" under the Act is proposed tobe expanded so as to include tribals and other traditional forest dwellers, who have lost anytraditional rights recognised under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional ForestDwellers (Recognitions of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (2 of 2007). Moreover, it is necessary toensure that persons having tenancy rights under the relevant State laws are included underthe scope of "person interested".4. Although the Land Acquisition Act provides for acquisition of land for publicpurpose, the expression "public purpose" has not been defined. Hence, the necessity ofdefining "public purpose", so as to restrict the scope of land acquisition under the Act toprovision of land for strategic purposes vital to the state, and for infrastructure projectswhere the benefits accrue to the general public is essential.5. The provision of the Act are also used to acquire private lands for companies. Thisfrequently raises a question mark on the desirability of such state intervention when landcould be arranged by the company through private negotiations on a "willing seller-willingbuyer" basis, which could be seen to be a more fear arrangement from the point of view of theland owner. In view of this it is desirable to omit the provisions for the acquisition of land forcompanies under the Act. However, under certain circumstances, it may be necessary toacquire some land through statutory mechanism to the extent of a limited portion of the totalarea of the land required when the "person" has already purchased the rest of the landthrough private negotiations and the purpose is useful to the general public. Such "person"may include any company or association or body of individuals, whether incorporated ornot.6. Further, it has been the experience that a large number of disputes relating to landacquisition compensation are brought before the courts of law. Quite often these casesremain pending for long periods of time in the courts. Such cases also add to the workload ofthe courts, which are generally over-burdened with cases other than land acquisition matters.Thus, it would be desirable that the jurisdiction of civil courts is barred for the purposes ofthe land acquisition compensation disputes and other alternate mechanisms created fordisposal of such disputes in a time-bound manner.7. Also, it is desirable to make the various steps of the land acquisition process timebound,so that the entire process can be completed within a reasonable period of time. Thiswill be in the interest of the land owners and farmers whose lands are acquired as well as theprojects and requiring bodies.8. Another area of concern in the application of the Act, so far, has been the requirementof providing a fair compensation at market value commensurate with the purpose for whichthe acquired land would be used. Certain provisions need to be introduced accordingly inthe Act. In addition, in view of the involuntary nature of the acquisition, adequate solatium