Provisions for assessment of land and determination of compensation

- Lokabhimukha Guidance : H.S. Patel IAS (Retd.)

- In the 2013 law, there is a provision to make land reference before a different authority instead of the court

(continued from previous)

We have presented information on the provisions of land acquisition process of Land Acquisition Act-1894 and the new 2013 Act in the previous article, nowadays we see fierce representations / protests by the owners of lands being acquired under Bullet Train, National Highway, Metro Train or other big projects, such as As stated, the state has the right as per the provisions of the constitution to acquire land/property of anyone for public purpose by following the legal process, yes, following a certain transparent process and fixing the compensation as per the prevailing market rate, provisions of solatium compensation for loss of land in the new law. Need to know. As per the Right to Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Fair Compensation and Transparency Act, 2013, principles have been laid down for determining compensation for land acquired under Section-26. In which first to determine the market price of compensation as the base year. So the market price on the date of publication as per Article-11 is to be taken as decisive in consideration. In this regard, Section-11 is a criterion for determining the fair market value by considering evidence of sales of land of the same nature and in all respects similar to the land actually sold or under acquisition at that time on the date of preliminary notification and the sale of land of similar valuation to the same area as the land to be acquired. The amount of compensation may be fixed depending on the price quoted in such sale, if evidence is found. Specially for the lands in the urban area, the evaluation of such lands is carried out through the officials of the Town Planning and Evaluation Department of the State Government, so that the evaluation of the land can be carried out in a scientific manner by the Municipal Corporation / Municipality / Development Authority / District / Taluka Headquarters as well as industrially developing areas.

While acquiring land, according to Article-26, the above criteria are to be determined as compensation for land. Now under Article-27 the manner of calculation of compensation has also been determined and according to it, all the properties attached to the land (including buildings, trees) have been included and it has been determined by the State Government for the use of its various departments, public enterprises. (Public undertaking) which includes companies/boards/corporations under the State Government and in which the State Government and private partnership project known as PPP (Public Private Partnership) and the ownership of the land acquired therein is wholly vested in the State Government and the State Government In special cases for private companies while acquiring land for public purpose, the compensation amount has to be calculated as per the criteria prescribed by law and according to that the market price which is determined is a multiple of two (2) if the land is in rural area and one for urban area. A coefficient of (1) is fixed and other properties attached to the land are also included in determining this compensation and 100% of the solatium consolation compensation is to be paid on the market value of the land. is In the previous law only 30% of the compensation was determined as solatium. Which has been made 100% in the new 2013 law. Thus, in case of acquisition of land in urban areas, according to the above criteria, two times the amount of compensation plus the amount of solusium and four times the amount of compensation for land in rural areas has to be determined. In order to determine the compensation for land along with other assets, if the land has standing crops, the opinion of the Department of Agriculture has to be obtained to determine the value of the standing crop and if the land has trees, the opinion of the Forest and Environment Department has to be obtained, besides which often the land is acquired. It is a partial acquisition instead of a complete acquisition and the loss caused to the interested person when the piece of land is no longer important, likewise the loss to the immovable and movable property, likewise the situation of changing the place of residence or place of business/business. The costs incurred thereby, as well as any other reason in the interest of equity and benefit to the affected family, are to be included in the award of compensation.

In the earlier Act, there was a provision to make Land Reference in the Civil Court in the award in which the amount of compensation was fixed. The Act of 2013 thus provides for determining the amount of reasonable compensation in a transparent manner, however, provision has been made in Chapter-8 of the Act to create a separate authority instead of Land Reference for speedy decisions against the award and accordingly in making the related provisions from Sections-51 to 74. has come

The party who is aggrieved by the award shall make a reference to the concerned authority within 30 days from the receipt of the application on the order of the Collector / Land Acquisition Officer. But the concerned party may apply within six weeks from the date of award while appearing before the Collector from the date of award. In case of any uncontrollable circumstances or special case the authority has the power to relax this time limit. An officer of the rank of District Judge is to be appointed in this authority and the decision on compensation passed by this authority is binding on the Adjudicating Officer and the parties concerned and the other courts are barred by the Government in this regard. (Bar of Jurisdiction) except that the High Court thus transparent provisions have been made in the Act of 2013 for the affected to get reasonable compensation in the field of land acquisition.