Point of Law : Any person interested in the land can raise objections relating to : (a) the area and suitability of the land proposed to be acquired (b) justification offered for public purpose and (c) the findings in the Social Impact Assessment report.
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JUDGMENT :

The petitioner impugns Ext.P3 order issued by the 2nd respondent – District Collector, under the provisions of Section 15 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 ('Fair Compensation Act' for short), on the specific ground that said Authority obtained no competence to have issued the said order.

2. Shri. K.R. Vinod, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, made submissions with specific reference to Section 15 of the 'Fair Compensation Act', predicating that clause 2 thereof would make it indubitable that the objections of the owner of a property sought to be acquired have to be made to the Collector, who will have to hear him and then make a report, to be forward to the competent Government. He pointed out that it is for the competent Government to make an order, which, under the rigour of clause 3 thereof, has been postulated to be final.

3. Shri.K.R.Vinod, thereafter, submitted that, from the facts of this case, it would become perspicuous that objections of his client were heard by the Collector, but that instead of forwarding his report to the Government, he himself issued Ext.P3 final order under Section 15 of the 'Fair Compensation Act'; thus vehemently arguing that the entire process is vitiated and liable to be interfered with by this Court.

4. In response, Smt. Mable C.Kurian, learned Senior Government Pleader, submitted that the afore submissions of the petitioner are based on a wrong impression of the statutory Scheme and she took my attention to the definitions of the words 'Appropriate Government' and 'Collector', as are available in Section 3 of the 'Fair Compensation Act'. She showed me that the word 'Collector' has been defined to be the Collector of a Revenue District; while the 'Appropriate Government' to be either the State or Central Government, as per the criteria therein, but its proviso renders it limpid that where, in respect of a public purpose in a District for an area not exceeding such as may be notified by the Government, it will be the District Collector who will be the 'Appropriate Government'. She thus explained that Government of Kerala has issued Annexure R2(a) notification under the sanction of the afore said proviso; and therefore, that the District Collector is the 'Appropriate Government' as far as this case is concerned. She thus argued that his action, in having issued Ext.P3, is without error and thus prayed that this writ petition be dismissed.

5. When I evaluate the afore rival contentions of the parties, it becomes necessary for me to have a glance at Section 15 of the 'Fair Compensation Act', which, for the purpose of easy reference, is extracted as under:

“15. Hearing of objections – (1) Any person interested in any land which has been notified under sub-section (1) of Section 11, as being required or likely tobe required for a public purpose, may within sixty days from the date of the publication of the preliminary notification, object to -

(a) the area and suitability of land proposed to be acquired;

(b) justification offered for public purpose;

(c) the findings of the Social Impact Assessment report.

(2) Every objection under sub-section (1) shall be made to the Collector in writing, and the Collector shall give the objector an opportunity of being heard in person or by any person authorised by him in this behalf or by an Advocate and shall, after hearing all such objections and after making such further inquiry, if any, as he thinks necessary, either make a report in respect of the land which has been notified under sub-section (1) of section 11, or make different reports in respect of different parcels of such land, to the appropriate Government, containing his recommendations on the objections, together with the record of the proceedings held by him along with a separate report giving therein the approximate cost of land acquisition, particulars as to the number of affected families likely to be r