The Jharkhand High Court has pulled up a senior official of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) over a compensation dispute in Hazaribagh, sharply questioning his authority to challenge payments due to a landless Scheduled Caste family. According to a report in The Indian Express, Justice Rajesh Kumar warned the officer that an FIR could be ordered against him if he continued to obstruct the award.
During the hearing, the court asked the Project Director under what law he was objecting to compensation when the power to recognise raiyati rights rested with the state and the Deputy Commissioner. “Is there one law for the country and a different one for Jharkhand? If the state has accepted someone as a raiyat, who are you to dispute it? Do you want commission in every case?” Justice Kumar was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.
The court also remarked that if similar objections had not been raised anywhere else in India, it would initiate an inquiry. “If you cannot comply, I will order an FIR against you. Do not make a mockery of this process,” the judge said.
The case involves land that the state government had settled in 1975 with a landless SC family as part of its policy. Settlement papers, mutation entries and rent receipts were issued, and the family cultivated the land for decades, The Indian Express reported.
When the land was acquired in 2015 for widening National Highway 33, an award was prepared in 2016 and the District Land Acquisition Officer sought funds from NHAI to compensate the owner. However, NHAI objected, arguing that since the land had been given free of cost, compensation was not applicable.
Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Awnish Shankar told the court that the Gazette Notification had clearly listed the names of the raiyats. He argued, as per The Indian Express, that once land is formally settled by the government, the recipient is treated as an owner for acquisition purposes and is entitled to compensation like any other landholder.
The bench noted with displeasure that NHAI had failed to raise this objection at the appropriate stage, and that nearly nine years had passed since the award was issued without payment being made. The judge directed the Project Director to take an immediate decision, The Indian Express reported.
An NHAI official, however, told the newspaper that the confusion arose because the land was initially notified as government property and only later, in 2020, did a claimant come forward with settlement records. According to him, frequent transfers of Project Directors also complicated the matter. “Once the issue was clarified in 2023, the award was approved for release. Compensation is now being processed,” the official said.
The matter will come up again on September 2, The Indian Express added.
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