Courts must subject land acquisition cases to closer scrutiny: SC
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COMMENTS 
Courts should ensure that the welfare of people is not sacrificed even when public interest is involved, the Supreme Court observed while ruling on a land acquisition case
The right to property may not be a fundamental right, yet the enjoyment of most other rights is closely related to property rights, the Supreme Court said on March 8, 2011. It recommended that land acquisition drives by governments should be subjected to strict scrutiny to ensure that poor people are not rendered landless to benefit a few.
With almost every state in the country facing growing anger and unrest from people whose lands are being acquired for various industrial projects, the SC’s direction to courts to ensure no injustice is done to the people when ruling on land acquisition issues made an important point.
“If public purpose can be satisfied by not rendering the common man homeless and by exploring other avenues of acquisition, the courts, before sanctioning an acquisition, must, in exercise of its power of judicial revue, focus its attention on the concept of social and economic justice,” said a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly who were hearing a case where agricultural land was sought by the Uttar Pradesh government to build district jails.
Referring to the plea often advanced for land acquisition, that it was required for a public purpose, the court observed: “The concept of public purpose in land acquisition has to be viewed from an angle which is consistent with the concept of the welfare state.”
Further, the application for ‘public purpose’ must be consistent with the fundamental rights and directive principles in the Indian Constitution, the court said.
The Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill 2007, which is still hanging fire, requires a social impact assessment study to be conducted as well. The current land acquisition bill only asks for an environment impact assessment study.
Source: DNA, March 9, 2011
www.outlookindia.com, March 2011