Telangana asked to constitute authority to pay fair compensation for land

Justice Suresh Kumar Kait of the High Court at Hyderabad on Wednesday directed the government of Telangana to constitute a State-level Rehabilitation and Resettlement Authority under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013.

The judge was dealing with a petition filed by M A Aziz, a resident of Secunderabad. The petitioner questioned the supplementary award passed by Deputy Collector (Land Acquisition) of GHMC in March last and sought to declare it as illegal and not in accordance of the First Schedule of the Act No. 30 of 2013.

Counsel for the petitioner V Ramachandra Goud said that 181 square yards of land belonging to his client was acquired for the Metro Rail and the Land Acquisition officer had passed the award fixing Rs 15,000 per square yard though the prevailing market value was Rs 50,000 per square yard in the area. He urged the court to set aside the award and direct the LAO to pass fresh award.

The judge questioned the counsel for the government whether the government had constituted the said authority. When the counsel replied that the State government had sent the proposal to the High Court in this regard, the judge enquired with the Registry of the High Court and the officers of the Registry said they had already to returned the proposal to the government.

The judge made it clear that the court had no connection with regard to constitution of the authority, the judge directed for constitution of the authority. The judge told the petitioner to make representation to the authority after two weeks of its constitution and if the authority was not constituted within four weeks, the petitioner has liberty to approach the court.