INTRODUCTION

Land is fundamental to our lives – we all need somewhere to live. It is used to grow the food that we
eat, and we need to travel over it to get to places. Over the centuries a number of different rights
have evolved to deal with the complex way that land is used.
In many ways, the LA act, 1894 is absolutely, contrary to new act. The LA act, 1894 acquired land through the
exercise of ‘doctrine of eminent domain’ which expression denotes, the power of the sovereign to acquire
private property for public use through compulsory purchase leaving limited scope for the land owner to
disagreement to sell his land and negotiate the price of his land. Under the present act, the government
continues to have the power to acquire land under the ‘doctrine of eminent domain; however, the power is now
greatly restricted.

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act,
2013 has sought to achieve balance between those who need the land and those whose land is being acquired
and is historical for the following reasons:

1. This act replaces a 120-year-old law - Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

2. This act is aimed at doing away with the ills of LA Act of 1894.
3. This act is a single act to address the issues of transparent acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation
and payment of enhanced compensation.
4. Resettlement and rehabilitation of displaced persons has been given statutory recognition for the first
time.
5. Social impact assessment has been given its due importance for the first time.
6. The act for the first time recognizes concerns of people other then the land owners.
7. Consent of gram sabha is needed in reserved area under the tribal land where Panchayats Act of 1996
hereinafter referred to as PESA is in force.
8. Local self-governments would be consulted at the time of acquisition of land.

The LA Act 1894, provided for payment of compensation only to the land owner. This act for the first time
recognizes that upon the acquisition of land, besides the land owners, several other people, namely,
displaced persons, person earning livelihood form such land, are also adversely affected and are therefore
required to be compensated, consequent to acquisition of land.

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 Important Definitions
all definitions are given under section 3 of the ‘the right to fair compensation and transparency in land
acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement act, 2013’ : -
 Land: - The expression land has been defined in s. 3 (p) of the act to include benefits to arise out of land
and things attached to earth or permanently fastened to the earth. Thus, the land would include the land
per se, the crops, trees, houses, buildings and machinery attached to the earth.
 Notification: - means a notification published in the Gazette of India or, as the case may be, the Gazette
of a state and the expression “notify” shall be construed accordingly.
 Affected families: - (a) person who either own the land or who have been granted land by the
central/state government under any of its scheme which is under acquisition; and

(b) persons/families who do not own the land but are dependent upon the land under acquisition, for their
livelihood, for three years prior to acquisition of the land.

 Person interested: - (a) besides the class of persons mentioned in the definition of affected families, it
include a new class of persons who have easementry rights on the land under acquisition;

(b) The limitation of three years imposed in affected families is not applicable to persons falling in the category
of ‘person interested’. To qualify to be called a person interested, the only test is that the person must be
dependent for the livelihood on the land under acquisition, without the limitation of the period of dependence.

 Displaced family: - means any family, who on account of acquisition of land has to be relocated and
resettled from the affected area to the resettlement area.
 Project: - project means a project for which the land is being acquired, irrespective of the number of
persons affected.

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 Preliminary Notification

Object of issuing preliminary notification: - the preliminary notification is issued under s. 11 of the act, the
objects of the preliminary notification are as follows;

a. Disclose the intention of the appropriate government to acquire land,

b. Invite objections from the persons interested who oppose the acquisitior.

The objections to the proposed acquisition can be raised by the affected families under section 5 of the act,
while undertaking the SIA study, however, another chance to object the acquisition has been contemplated
under sec. 15 of the act. The primary difference between the objections under sec.5 and 15 is that the objections
under s. 15 can be raised by a large mass of people who have been described as ‘ person interested’.

Scope: - section 11 of the act contemplates issuance of preliminary notification which would prima facie
indicate the intent of the appropriate government to acquire the land the details of which form the part of
preliminary notification. Prerequisite of the issuance of preliminary notification is that the appropriate
government has satisfied itself that the land is needed for public purpose. In the opinion of the author, the
recommendation envisaged under s. 8 is good enough satisfaction of the appropriate government; the
appropriate government is not required to satisfy itself afresh under s. 11 of the act.

The preliminary notification has to be published in the following manner:

(a) In the official gazette;

(b) In two newspapers that are published daily and having circulation in the locality where the land is
proposed to be acquired , one of which is in vernacular language of the affected area;
(c) In the office of panchayat, municipality or municipal corporation, district-collector, sub-divisional
magistrate and the tehsil;
(d) On the website of the appropriate government; and
(e) In the affected area, in such manner as may be prescribed.

Besides the modes of publications mentioned hereinabove, sub-s (2) of the s 11 envisages holding of a meeting
of the concerned gram sabha at the village level, municipalities in case of municipal areas and autonomous
councils in cases of areas referred to in the sixth schedule to the constitution. This meeting has to be especially
called to inform the members of the bodies mentioned in cl. (c ) of sub-s (1) of s 11 of the act about the contents
of the preliminary notification.

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Contents of preliminary notification: - the preliminary notification issued under sub-s (3) of s 11 shall contain
the following information:

a. Details of the land to be acquired in the rural and urban area;

b. Statement on the nature of public purpose involved;
c. Reasons necessitating the displacement of affected persons;
d. Summary of SIA report; and
e. Particulars of administration appointed for the purpose of rehabilitation and resettlement.

Transfer of land specified in preliminary notification: -

Sub-section (4) of s. 11 provides that any land in respect of which a preliminary notification has been issued
shall be transacted in any manner from the date of publication of preliminary notification till the time the
proceedings. Prohibited transactions would inter-alia include all kinds of transfer specified in the transfer of
property act, 1882, sale, lease, mortgage, gift and exchange. The collector may however on the application of
the owner of the land may exempt any owner from the restriction imposed in sub-s (4) of s 11. The permission
granted by the collector has to be in writing, which means it must give reason for granting an exception. The
power to grant exception should be exercised by the collector only in exceptional circumstances.

Where any person willfully transacts in such land, without the permission of the collector and consequently
suffers any loss or injury, his loss and injury shall not be made by the collector.

Preliminary survey of land: - section 12 of the act contemplates s preliminary survey of land to determine the
extent of land t be acquired, which is in consonance with the satisfaction of the appropriate government under
s.8 of the act that minimum area of land needed for a project is proposed to be acquired and to determine how
many people would be displaced, what would be the extent o disturbance to infrastructure, ecology and what
would be the adverse impact on the affected persons. The land to be acquired for the project should not be more
than the minimum area requirement. If the appropriate government reaches a conclusion that the benefits of the
propsed acquisition are lee than the adverse social, ecological or displacement impact, the logical conclusion is
that the proposed land is not suitable for the project.

Section 12 of the act empowers any officer, his servant and workmen, authorized by the appropriate government
to enter upon such land for the purpose of determining the extent of land to be acquired and do the following:

(a) Enter upon any survey and take levels of any land is such locality; (b) to dig or bore into the sub-soil (c)
to do all other acts necessary to ascertain whether the land is adopted for such prupose;

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(d) to set out the boundaries of the land proposed to be taken and the intended line of the work proposed to
be made thereon.

Exception:- to this rule is given in the second proviso of sec. 12, wherein it has been stated that the acts of
entering or to dig or bore may be carried out in the absence of the owner if the owner has been afforded
reasonable opportunity to be present during the survey by giving him a notice of at least 60 days prior to
such survey.

Payment of damage: - The authorized officer requires to pay or tender for any damage caused to the owner
on account of preliminary survey under s.13 of the act. The sufficiency of the amount will be decided by the
collector, chief revenue officer.

Lapse of SIA report: - Section 14 of the act provides that where within a period of 12 months from the
appraisal of the SIA report, by the expert group , a notification for acquisition is not issued, and the SIA
study shall lapse. It effectively means if the appropriate government desires to acquire the land after
prescribed time, it will have to repeat the process. This provision has been added to insure that actions are
timely taken, if however, of any reasons, the actions could not be taken, the affected family should be able
to obtain the compensation.

The prescribed time of 12 months can be extended by the appropriate government if in its opinion
circumstances exist justifying such extension.

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 Objections

Section 15 of the act permits persons interested to file objections to the preliminary notification with in a period
60 day of publication of preliminary notification under s. 11 of the act. The objections have to be raised in
writing to the collector. Needless to say, the person preferring objections would be opposed to the proposed
acquisition of land, who can inter-alia challenge the proposed acquisition of land only on the following three
grounds: -

(a) The area and suitability of land proposed to be acquired

The appropriate government gets a chance to evaluate the minimum land requirement for the project at two
stages, the first stage is at the time of carrying out SIA study and the second stage is when the authorized officer
enters upon land for carrying out a survey. The persons opposed to acquisition have been permitted to challenge
that the area which is proposed to be acquired is more than the minimum land required for the project, which in
other words would mean surplus land is proposed to be acquired. The other ground of challenge could be that
the proposed land is not suitable for the project, which would cover in its ambit that the likely benefit arising
out of acquisition is less than the likely adverse social impacts. The suitability may also be challenged where the
raw material for the project is situated far from the area proposed to be acquired.

(b) Justification offered for public purpose

Another factor which may be challenged by the objectors to the acquisition is that the purpose for which the
land is proposed to be acquired does not qualify to be a ‘public purpose’ as envisaged under the act. Under s. 8
the appropriate government has been subjected to a tougher test which requires that the for acquisition should
not only be public purpose but only must be legitimate and bona fide. The objectors may point out that the
justification offered by the appropriate government seeking to acquire land for supposedly public purpose is not
good enough.

(c) Findings of the social import report

The third ground on which the preliminary notification may be challenged is the finding of the SIA report. As
appointed out earlier, recommendation to acquire the land under s.8 is a prerequisite for issuance of preliminary
notification; hence, the objectors may point out that the recommendation of the appropriate government is
vitiated.

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