Centre acting with state is 'appropriate govt' to buy land: HC told

When a project straddles more than one state, the Centre acting in consultation with states is the "appropriate government" under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, the Gujarat High Court was informed today during a hearing on the bullet train project.

Gujarat Advocate General Kamal Trivedi told a division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice Vimal Pancholi that the "appropriate government" to acquire land under the 2013 Act means the Centre in consultation with state governments.

The bench was hearing a batch of petitions challenging land acquisition in Gujarat for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

The Act should be given "purposive interpretation", and petitioners should not have a problem on whether a notification for land acquisition is issued by the state or the Centre when both are acting in consultation with each other, Trivedi submitted.

The matter was posted for further hearing on Wednesday.

The petitioners, a group of farmers from Surat district, have contended that as the project extends to more than one state (Gujarat and Maharashtra), the "appropriate government" which can acquire land under the 2013 Act is the Centre.

They have challenged the preliminary notification issued by the Gujarat government for land acquisition for the project, saying the state has no powers to do so.

Another contention of the petitioners was that the market value of the land in question was not revised by the special land acquisition officer, as required under Section 26 of the Act.

The petitioners also challenged the Gujarat Amendment Act, 2016, which tweaked the 2013 law, a Central legislation.

It gives "unbridled and unfettered powers" to the state government to exempt any project "in public interest" from the social impact assessment (SIA), the petitions said.

Under the Central law, SIA is mandatory before land acquisition.