Financial burden no excuse to deny fair dues for land buys: SC

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Wednesday said magnitude of financial burden could not be factored in to deny just and fair compensation for land acquisition even as it limited the applicability of a liberal compensation regime - a decision that could substantially reduce National Highways Authority of India's Rs 29,000 crore liability for land acquired since 1995.

NHAI had sought review of two judgments in a case titled Tarsem Singh on the grounds that it had erroneously calculated the financial burden to be Rs 100 crore when it would amount to approximately Rs 29,000 crore.

A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan said, "Constitutional guarantee of just compensation cannot be rendered contingent upon the magnitude of the financial burden. Consequently, a mere escalation in projected liability, howsoever significa-nt, does not constitute, per se, a valid ground for review or modification of the judgment."

Writing the verdict, CJI Kant said the principle laid down in the earlier judgments - the fiscal implications of granting solatium and interest cannot override the substantive entitlement of land-losers - was sound in law and equity and required no modification. However, SC felt the necessity of clarifying the earlier judgments to limit the relief of solatium and interest to those landowners whose claims had remained pending and deny it to those who had already received their compensation and never appealed against it. These landowners could not get up from slumber after decades and seek enhanced compensation based on the Tarsem Singh judgments, the bench said.

"All landowners whose clai-ms regarding quantum and/or components of compensation for their lands acquired under the NH Act were alive on or after March 28, 2008... shall be entitled to seek addition of 'interest', 'solatium', and 'interest on the solatium' to their compensation claim," SC said.


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