The Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the State government to explain how orders had been issued for the acquisition of 1,221 hectares of land in various villages for the SilverLine project even when a survey as per the Survey and Boundaries Act was only under way.
Justice Devan Ramachandran issued the directive on a writ petition filed by Binu Sebastian and three others from Ettumanoor, Kottayam, seeking a directive to the State government not to proceed with any survey for demarcating boundaries and fixation of alignments for any railway project in the properties of the petitioners.
Aspect of concern
When the petition came up for hearing, the court noted that one aspect of concern was that in the government orders, the extent of land required to be acquired had already been mentioned, along with the details of the block number, survey number and villages. Obviously, therefore, the senior government pleader must explain to the court how this had been done.
The petitioners said officials under the special tahsildar, land acquisition, Kottayam, had entered their properties and made steps to demarcate the boundaries arbitrarily and illegally.
The petitioners contended that as per Section 11 of the Railways Act, only the Central government and its instrumentalities alone were authorised to issue the notification for land acquisition, survey, measurement and valuation for any railway project. However, the State government had now issued them by disregarding the provisions of law.
The petitioners sought the quashing of the government orders and all further proceedings for survey and land acquisition.
The petitioners also sought a directive to the State government and the Kerala Rail Development Corporation not to proceed with any survey until appropriate notifications were issued as contemplated in the Railways Act.
