SC declines farmers plea seeking restoration of their lands

The Supreme Court Thursday declined a batch of petitions by farmers of villages located in Noida, Greater Noida and Noida Extension, neighbouring the national capital, seeking restoration of their lands which were held to be wrongly acquired by NOIDA authority by invoking the urgency clause.

A bench headed by Chief Justice H.L.Dattu declined the plea by the farmers who had challenged the Allahabad High Court's October 21, 2011 verdict, which, while quashing the acquisition of land by invoking the urgency clause, had instead of restoring it, enhanced compensation by 64.7 percent.

The high court had also directed that the farmers whose lands have been acquired would get 10 percent of developed land in proportion to their acquired land.

Since most of the farmers had accepted the compensation, the apex court questioned the farmers plea for the return of their acquired lands even after they had accepted compensation.

The court had earlier declined the Noida authority's plea challenging the Allahabad High Court's order enhancing the compensation and giving 10 percent of the acquired land to the farmers after development.

Nearly 100 real estate projects by various developers are coming up on the acquired lands and nearly 1.5 lakh people have registered flats in these projects.