The main legal point established in the judgment is the importance of complying with the specified time frame for filing objections under the National Highways Act and the court's emphasis on the public interest in highway development.

JUDGMENT :

B. Mohanty, J.

This writ petition has been filed by the petitioner challenging the notification dated 27.12.2019 published by the Government of India in Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Department under sub-section(1) of Section 3A of the National Highways Act, 1956, for short the ‘Act’ published in daily newspaper ‘The Dharitri’, regarding acquisition of lands of the petitioner for the purpose of construction of Raipur to Vishakhapatnam Economic Corridor and consequently prayer has been made for quashing of the said Notification which was published in the newspaper on 23.1.2020. The petitioner has also made an alternative prayer to direct the opposite parties more particularly opposite party Nos. 3 and 7 to modify the alignment of the proposed road in accordance with the enquiry report under Annexure-5 and to consider and dispose of the objection under Annexure-6 as per Section 3C of the ‘Act’.

2. The case of the petitioner is that it is a registered farm and the said farm purchased Ac. 24.00 cents land which was originally classified as ‘Dongoro’ i.e. dry land. Out of the said land Ac.14.00 cents has been converted to non-agricultural category under Section 8A of the Orissa Land Reforms Act, 1960 and the petitioner is in uninterrupted possession of the same. The petitioner ventured to construct a mega poultry farm namely, ‘Sunrise Egg Farm’ over Plot Nos. 9 to 13 of Khata No. 108/477. The total project cost was estimated of Rs. 14.00 crores. The petitioner availed loan from the bank for establishing the said project. Accordingly the petitioner has constructed boundary wall and construction of ware house, office building, water tank, seven numbers of poultry shed, staff quarters and other ancillaries have already been completed by spending Rs.8.00 crores and electricity connection has been obtained to the farm site by spending Rs.17.00 lakhs and the project is ready to have its maiden production. Copies of the relevant R.O.Rs. have been filed under Annexure-1 series. While so, on 23.1.2020 the Land Acquisition Authorities published Notification in daily newspaper i.e. ‘The Dharitri’ regarding acquisition of land for construction of Raipur to Vishakhapatnam Economic Corridor/Express Highway under Section 3A of the ‘Act’, a copy of which has been annexed to the writ petition as Annexure-2. According to the petitioner the Notification under Section 3A as indicated above violates sub-section 2 of Section 3A of the ‘Act’ as it does not give details of the properties along with the brief description of the land proposed to be acquired. Further the case of the petitioner is that the said Notification under Annexure-2 is otherwise illegal as the same does not indicate as to which portion of the land is going to be acquired. The petitioner only came to know about the exact area to be acquired when the staff of Land Acquisition Officer came to the spot on 16.8.2020 for conducting demarcation and put pillars over the land to mark the exact area. Only then the petitioner could realize that the proposed Highway is going to pass in the middle of the land of the petitioner as a result of which, one big patch of petitioner’s land will be divided into small patches and partly constructed buildings have to be completely demolished and accordingly they would suffer huge financial loss of Rs. 14.00 crores. Accordingly, on 17.8.2020 the partner of the farm through whom the writ petition has been filed namely, Mohammed Rafi preferred an objection against the proposed land acquisition with regard to the land situated at village Kamra under Annexure-4 to Tahasildar, Borigumma (opposite party No.6). The Tahasildar, Borigumma conducted an enquiry and recorded his observation that the petitioner is going to suffer a lot if the alignment of the proposed highway is not changed. This enquiry report which has been addressed to the Land Acquisition Officer, Collectorate, Koraput (opposite party No.7) has been annexed to the writ petition as A