HC declares as 'illegal' amendment by TN govt to Centre's Land Acquisition Act

The Madras High Court has declared as "illegal" an amendment made by the Tamil Nadu government to the Centre's Land Acquisition Act, exempting three state legislations from its purview.

It also made it clear that all land acquisitions made by the state government under the three state legislations on or after September 27, 2013, were "illegal."
To this the bench said, "In such cases, we can only direct that the compensation and the rehabilitation must be strictly made in accordance with the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 the New Land Acquisition Act."
Rejecting the contention of the petitioners that the President had failed to apply his mind while granting assent to Section 105 A, the bench said, "The petitioners had also not demonstrated as to how and why the impugned State Acts were arbitrary in nature and liable to be struck down on the ground of being manifestly arbitrary."