PIL seeks scrapping of Guj govt's "anti-farmer" SIR Act

A PIL seeking quashing of the Gujarat Government's Special Investment Region (SIR) Act 2009 for being "anti-farmer" and "unconstitutional" was filed before the High Court today.
The PIL, filed by the 'Gujarat Khedut Hit Rakshak Samiti' of Vadodara district, alleged the state government under section 17 of the Act can "take away" the land of farmers "under the garb of" town planning and deprive them of any compensation.
The PIL, as an interim relief, has sought a stay on the industrial and construction activities under SIR.
A two-judge bench of acting Chief Justice V M Sahai and Justice R P Dholaria heard the PIL and posted it for further hearing on April 7 along with another plea filed earlier by the same petitioner because the subject of both the petitions deals with laws pertaining to acquisition of land and development activities.

In the PIL filed through its general secretary Jitendra Pandya, the Samiti contended the SIR Act 2009 should be held unconstitutional as it deprives them of their land without giving proper compensation.
"According to Section 17 of the SIR Act 2009, the SIR authorities have the right to take (away) the land in the name of town planning activity, however, it does not deal with the issue of compensation that should be given to the affected farmers," Pandya said.

Citing another judgement of the Gujarat high court, he said the SIR authority cannot take away land "under the garb of" town-planning because the authority to decide town planning activities has been given to a panel of experts formed by the division bench in November last year.

The state government gave the right of town planning to the SIR authority, which is "illegal and unconstitutional" as per the high court's order of last year, and hence the SIR Act 2009 should be declared illegal, said the PIL.
The PIL said the powers and jurisdiction of the village panchayats are restricted to village boundary only. "The provisions of the SIR Act are contrary to the constitutional provisions of panchayats, and (it-the Act) is, therefore, unconstitutional," the petitioner alleged.
The SIR Act was conceptualised in the 'Vibrant Gujarat Summit' of 2007, which was held under the then chief minister Narendra Modi. However, the Act came into existence only in year 2009.

The PIL has also sought to set aside the state government's notification of 2009 which brought 22 villages in Dholera taluka of Suredranagar district under the SIR Act.