The provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Act, 2013, apply to land acquisitions under the National Highways Act, requiring a detailed examination of individual claims for rehabilitation and resettlement benefits.

JUDGMENT:

(Per, Somasekhar Sundaresan J.)

1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Learned Counsel for the Respondents waive service. By consent of the parties, heard finally.

2. This is a batch of Writ Petitions that involve a singular and common question of law – whether, and how, the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (“2013 Act”) would apply to determination of compensation, provision of rehabilitation and resettlement and making available infrastructure amenities in cases of land acquisition under the National Highways Act, 1956 (“NH Act”).

3. The case of the Petitioners is that while the law is clear that the entitlements to rehabilitation and resettlement under the Second Schedule of the 2013 Act would be available over and above the monetary compensation under the First Schedule of the 2013 Act even to cases of land acquisition under the NH Act, their grievance is that their requests for entitlements under the Second Schedule have been rejected in a mechanical manner, purporting to reply on a Manual of Guidelines, instead of an objective application of the substantive provisions of the relevant schedules of the 2013 Act to the facts relating to the Petitioners requests.

4. The case of the Petitioners is that the determination of compensation under the First Schedule, the rehabilitation and resettlement under the Second Schedule and provision of infrastructure amenities under the Third Schedule of the 2013 Act would apply entirely to cases of land acquisition under the NH Act. Consequently, they submit, the Competent Authority under the NH Act has to apply his mind consciously to the facts of each case of acquisition under the NH Act and examine the circumstances of each project and determine the entitlement under the schedules to the 2013 Act. At the heart of the Petitioners’ claim is a Notification issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India bearing Reference No. NH-11011/30/2015-LA dated December 28, 2017 (“2017 Notification”), which makes it clear that matters of land acquisition for purposes of national highways are squarely covered by the 2013 Act.

5. Before delving into the contents of 2017 Notification, it would be relevant to examine an Order dated August 28, 2015 titled Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Removal of Difficulties) Order, 2015 (“2015 Order”), which is an important milestone in the journey of the law governing the application of the 2013 Act to the acquisitions under the NH Act.

6. A brief overview of the journey of the legislative intervention in the form of the schedules of the 2013 Act into the operation of the NH Act, would be in order. Section 105(1) of the 2013 Act provides that the 2013 Act would not apply to the enactments relating to land acquisition specified in the Fourth Schedule, subject however, to Section 105(3). The NH Act is one of the enactments listed in the Fourth Schedule. Section 105(3) provides that within one year from the date of commencement of the 2013 Act, the Central Government shall direct that any of the provisions of the Act relevant to the first three Schedules of the 2013 Act, being beneficial to the affected family, shall apply to cases of land acquisition under the enactments listed in the Fourth Schedule, with such exceptions and modifications as the direction may contain, but without reducing the compensation or dilution of the provisions of 2013 Act relating to compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement.

7. Meanwhile, the 2013 Act was amended by the RCTLARR (Amendment) Ordinance 2014, (“First Ordinance”) promulgated with effect from January 1, 2015 extending the provisions of the 2013 Act in relation to computation of compensation as per the First Schedule, rehabilitation and resettlement as per the Second Schedule, and the provision of infrastructure amenities as per the Third Sche