Land acquisition bill 1894 - Details and process

Land acquisition bill 1894 – Details and process

Q. Land acquisition in India is currently governed by The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 repealed the Land acquisition Act 1894. Throw light on the Land Acquisition bill of 1894 and the procedure that time.

– Passed by British government
– Enabled the government to acquire private land for growing needs of industry or development.
– Government authority was to decide compensation to cover losses.
– By this law central, state, local authorities, societies registered under Society Act ,1860 could acquire the land.
– After Independence government adopted the same law but various amendments were made to it.

Procedure

- Divided in 5 parts

1. Investigation

When a local authority or a company required a land an application was submitted. If government decided to go ahead then notification was published. After notification the owner was prohibited from selling his property or disposing and prevented from carrying out any works of improvements for which no compensation was to be paid if executed without prior permission from the collector.

2. Objection and Confirmation

Objections were invited from all persons interested in land within thirty days from the date of notification on grounds of if land was not acquired for public purpose, area under acquisition was excessive or acquisition could destroy or impair historical or artistic monuments or could desecrate religious buildings, graveyards and the like. After inquiry report would be submitted to government who would finally declare the land for acquisition

3. Claim and Award

The collector would issue notices to all persons interested in the acquisition to file their claim reports. In determining the compensation the market value of the land was determined at the date of notification. The rise and fall in the value during the period of transaction and notification was taken into consideration.

After necessary inquiries the collector declared his award showing true area of the land, total amount of compensation payable. The collector had to make the award under section 11 within a period of two years from the date of notification.

4. Reference to Court

Any person who though that award was not satisfactory could submit a written application to the court within six weeks from the date of declaration of the award.

5. Apportionment

In apparent of the compensation each of the claimants were entitled to the value of his interest, which he had lost, by compulsory acquisition. Thus it was required to value a variety of interest, rights and claims in the land in terms of money.

Criticisms of Land acquisition bill 1894

The criticism was fallen into two categories – People who view act as weak and People who view act as harsh.

a. People who view act as weak

1.Procedure followed was cumbersome and costly, often resulted in inordinate delay in land acquisition
2. Determination of public purpose should have been matter of executive discretion and should not have involve courts.
3. Property valuation techniques were flawed and that the land owners get to peg the value higher than the real value, based on ‘potential value’ and ‘opportunity value’ of their property
4. Restrictions on the scale of development and redevelopment projects

b. People who view act as harsh

1. A land was acquired for number of projects with no public purpose. e.g SEZ
2. Below the market value of these properties.
3. Relocation and rehabilitation of land owners displaced by the actions of the act was not followed up properly.

Land acquisition in India is currently governed by The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 repealed the Land acquisition Act 1894.