Supreme Court orders Himachal Pradesh Govt to pay Rs 3.05 crore relief to six landowners in Solan

The Supreme Court has directed the Himachal Pradesh Government to pay a compensation of more than Rs 3.05 crore to six persons whose land in Solan district was acquired to provide a safety zone for a cement plant and mining areas.

A Bench led by Justice JB Pardiwala yesterday ordered that the Rs 3,05,31,095 crore compensation should be paid along with 9 per cent interest from the date of passing of the Supplementary Award on May 2, 2022, till the date of realisation, within a period of 15 days.

The Bench, which also included Justice Manoj Misra, said that the total amount paid by the state shall be recovered from M/s Jaiprakash Associates Limited (JAL). “We regret to note that the amount of Rs 3,05,31,095 determined as compensation under the supplementary award has not been paid to the landowners for more than two years and Himachal Pradesh as a welfare state has made no effort to get the same paid at the earliest,” it said.

The Bench noted that even before the amount of compensation could be determined by way of a supplementary award dated June 8, 2018, the land in question stood transferred to the JAL. “This, in our view, is in the contravention of Section 38 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, and Section 41 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894,” it said.

The Himachal Pradesh Government had issued a notification on July 25, 2008, under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, through its Department of Industries, declaring its intention to acquire the subject land measuring 56.14 bighas, situated at Mauza Bhalag in Arki tehsil of Solan district in favour of the Jaypee Himachal Cement project, a unit of the JAL, invoking the urgency clause under Section 17 of the 1894 Act.

Some landowners had challenged the acquisition proceedings before the Himachal Pradesh High Court, which directed the firm to pay the requisite amount towards compensation as determined in the supplementary award of May 2, 2022, passed by the Land Acquisition Collector, Arki, with liberty to recover the same from the JAL, if permissible under the legal relationship between the two entities.

The top court’s verdict came on an appeal filed by M/s UltraTech Cement Ltd arising out of the Himachal Pradesh High Court’s order dated July 12, 2022, on the dispute.

The delay in the payment of compensation to the landowners after taking away the ownership of the land from them was in contravention of the spirit of the constitutional scheme of Article 300A and the idea of a welfare state, it said. Article 300-A mandates that, “No person shall be deprived of his property, save by an authority of law”.

The Bench said, “The state government, in peculiar circumstances, was expected to make the requisite payment towards compensation to the landowners from its own treasury and should have thereafter proceeded to recover the same from the JAL.”

“Instead of making the poor landowners run after the powerful corporate houses, it (Himachal Government) should have compelled the JAL to make the necessary payment… It is regrettable that the state of Himachal Pradesh, being a welfare state, did not ensure the payment of compensation to the respondents No. 1-6 before taking possession of their land,” the top court said.

To be paid with 9% interest

• The ~3,05,31,095 crore compensation to be paid along with 9 per cent interest within 15 days
• The total amount paid by the state shall be recovered from M/s Jaiprakash Associates Limited (JAL)
• The compensation under the supplementary award not paid to the landowners for more than two years
• The Supreme Court's verdict came on an appeal filed by M/s UltraTech Cement Ltd arising out of the Himachal High Court's order dated July 12, 2022, on the dispute