The Kerala High Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking direction to the respondents to conduct an environmental impact study of the proposed 200 acres land to be acquired for KINFRA Industrial park before taking any decision with regard to acquisition.
The petitioners’ grievance is regarding the proposal to acquire 200 acres of land in Desamangalam in Thrissur District for setting up an industrial park.
When the matter was called out, Government Pleader, on instructions, submitted that the acquisition proceedings have elapsed and referred to the Memo dated 23/08/2023 filed along with a communication dated 22/08/2023 issued by the Principal Secretary to Government.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice A.J.Desai and Justice V.G.Arun heard the Government Pleader in charge of the matter. He submitted that since no notification came to be issued under Section 11(1) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act,2013(LARR Act,2013), the acquisition has elapsed. The relevant paragraph of the communication dated 22/08/2023 is extracted hereunder;
“It is informed that as per section 14 of LARR Act, 2013 where a preliminary notification under sub-section (1) of section 11 is not issued within twelve months from the date of appraisal of the Social Impact Assessment report submitted by the Expert Group under section 7, then, such report shall be deemed to have lapsed and a fresh Social Impact Assessment shall be required to be undertaken prior to acquisition proceedings under Section 11. The date of appraisal of the Social Impact Assessment report by the Expert Group under section 7 was submitted on 23/09/2019. As per section 14 of LARR Act, 2013, the 11(1) Notification ought to have been issued within a period of 12 months ie on or before 22/09/2020. Since the 11(1) Notification has not been issued, the acquisition proceedings has become de-novo. Further at present there is no intention of Govt. to proceed fresh acquisition proceedings to acquire 200 Acres of land in Arangattukara and Pallur Villages of Thrissur district in possession of Desamangalam Estate for setting up Industrial Park by KINFRA”.
In view of the above development, the Court dismissed the PIL.