Procedural compliance under the Railways Act is essential for valid land acquisition for public purpose projects.

JUDGMENT :

SUNITA AGARWAL, CJ.

Learned counsel for the petitioners prays and is granted permission to make correction in the prayer clause in the writ petitions during the course of the day to make proper prayers.

2. By means of the abovenoted three writ petitions, the petitioners are challenging the validity of the acquisition notifications dated 11.10.2023 and 12.10.2023 under Section 20A of the Railways Act , 1989 and the declaration notifications under Section 20E dated 08.10.2024 and 09.10.2024. The challenge is also to the validity of the Notification dated 02.02.2023 issued under Section 2 (37A) of the , 1989. The three writ petitions have been tagged and heard together as they are on common questions of law and facts.

3. Challenging the acquisition proceedings drawn by the Railways with the notifications issued by the Ministry of Railways (Western Railways)(Construction Organisation), noted hereinbefore, it was submitted by Mr. Mihir Joshi, the learned senior advocate for the petitioners in one of the writ petitions that the proceedings for acquisition under the Railways Act can be invoked in a case where the Central Government is satisfied that any land is required for the public purpose, which should be for execution of a Special Railway Project. Before issuance of the proposal under Section 20A declaring the intention of the Central Government to acquire any land, there is a necessity of making a declaration by means of the notification as per Section 2 (37A) by the Central Government that the project-in-question is a Special Railway Project, which fulfills the condition of being a project for providing national infrastructure for a public purpose and is to be executed in a specified time-frame.

4. The further submission is that on the publication of the proposal for acquisition under Section 20A , the petitioners herein filed their objections on 31.10.2023, raising specific queries, pertinent amongst which are asking to provide relevant documents of the proposal for considering the project-in-question as a Special Railway Project within the meaning of Section 2 (37A) of the Railways Act ; the feasibility report, if any, in relation to the proposal in question; the survey report, if any, undertaken; the report regarding consultation with the land owners who would be affected by the acquisition. Inviting attention of the Court to the response of the Railways to the said queries raised by the petitioners, the learned senior advocate appearing for the petitioners has taken us through page No. ‘190’ of the paper book, the reply to the representation dated 29.11.2023 filed by some of the petitioners therein.

5. Giving parawise remarks to the objections raised by the petitioners in the table provided in the communication dated 08.01.2024 sent by the Deputy Chief Engineer/C/II-ADR, in response to the query about the proposal for considering the project as a Special Railway Project, the copy of the notification dated 02.02.2023 has been enclosed. However, in response to the query with regard to the minutes of the meeting of the concerned competent authority wherein the decision was taken to treat the project as a Special Railway Project, it was stated that considering the importance and urgency of the project, the proposal was submitted to railway’s competent authority to declare it as a Special Railway Project and the authority decides itself on the merits of the project. It is further stated therein that there was no meeting organised for the purpose.

6. The submission of the learned senior counsel, thus, is that the notification dated 02.02.2023 is not backed by any decision of the competent authority arri