Allahabad:
The Allahabad High Court today set aside acquisition of more than 100 hectares of land in Mathura district for promoting tourism and developing residential colonies. The court held that invoking of "urgency clause" by the Uttar Pradesh government was "not justified".
The order passed by a division bench comprising Justices Sunil Ambawani and Kashi Nath Pandey, comes close on the heels of similar judgements by the High Court. The judgments cause a major embarrassment to the UP government which has been facing flak over its land acquisition policy and its repeated invoking of the urgency clause.
The petitions were filed by Sarita Goel and others, who owned a total of 110.496 hectares of land in Azizpur village of Mathura, which was acquired in August 2007-08.
The petitioners had moved the court with the contention that the state government had invoked the "urgency clause" for acquiring the land, whereby the owners were deprived of their "valuable right" to raise objections and negotiate for adequate compensation.
Allowing the petitions, the court was of the view that the state government was "not justified" in invoking the urgency clause. The court ordered that if possession of any portion of the land was taken by the Mathura Vrindavan Development Authority, which was supposed to carry out the development works, the same should be returned to its owners.
The High Court had in May quashed the acquisition of more than 150 hectares of land in Shahberi village in Greater Noida and, subsequently, an appeal filed by the state government challenging the order was set aside by the Supreme Court.
Following this, aggrieved farmers from Gautam Buddh Nagar district have been moving the court, challenging acquisition of their land by the state government.