NHAI’s lack of machinery ‘travesty of justice’, high court calls for operational guidelines

Calling it a “travesty of justice” that National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), constituted specifically for developing and managing national highways, functions without its own inspection, verification or compensation machinery, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has called for formulating “efficient and effective operational guidelines”.

The direction came as Justice Harkesh Manuja expressed serious concern over “handicap of the court” arising from the systemic deficiencies within NHAI. The court asserted the guidelines were essential “to ensure that every payment made under land acquisition process is transparent, properly accounted for, and immune from any arbitrary or discretionary exercise of authority”. The bench also directed placing the order before NHAI chairman for perusal and necessary action.

Justice Manuja observed that NHAI was a statutory body under the provisions of the National Highways Authority of India Act. Yet, it “did not even possess its own official machinery to either inspect or verify the land sought to be acquired for the purpose of laying down of national highways; to enter for survey thereof; to hear objections submitted by the interested person in the said land or even to take possession thereof or to determine the amount of compensation against it”.

Justice Manuja further observed a “huge amount of public money has been placed at the disposal of the authority to be released as compensation against acquisition of land”. But NHAI was for all practical purposes dependent upon the “borrowed or hired officers” either on deputation from the ministry concerned or from the State machinery. They were usually “neither expert in the field of revenue or finance, but are primarily from the engineering line”.

Justice Manuja added even the awards were being passed by officers borrowed from the State machinery in the form of competent authority-cum-sub divisional magistrate. But they were not under NHAI’s administrative control.

Referring to the National Highway Authority of India Act, Justice Manuja asserted it empowered the authority to appoint its own officers or employees for discharging its statutory functions. But permanent appointments had so far not been made. Instead, “advisers and consultants are being hired privately from time to time. In fact, the reliance on the ad hoc remedies or external facilitation signals a deeper challenge, as it lacks accountability at every level”.

Taking a critical look at the payment mechanism framed under the relevant rules, Justice Manuja asserted a broad framework for maintaining a centralised account and issuing authorisation limits for withdrawal of funds was provided for. But it fell short of establishing a transaction-level monitoring or audit mechanism necessary to ensure transparency and accountability in disbursal.

“The rule does not provide any mechanism for a uniform, real-time system to trace individual payments or reconcile withdrawals with the entitlement of each landowner separately, resulting in a lack of procedural uniformity and leaving scope for manifestly discriminate, selective and delayed release of compensation,” the bench added. The matter will now be listed for compliance on November 3.