President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent to promulgation of the land acquisition ordinance (called “Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015”) for the third time in row, which could not be converted into law during the recently concluded Budget Session of Parliament. Earlier the Union Cabinet had approved this ordinance.
It is noteworthy that the first land acquisition ordinance was promulgated on 31 December 2014 (see here). Since the Parliament was not able to replace this ordinance with a law, the land acquisition ordinance was promulgated for the second time on 3 April 2015 (see here). Yet again, the Government was not successful in converting this ordinance into law through the Parliament, and in fact, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015 (see here) was referred to a Joint Committee of the Parliament headed by Shri S.S. Ahluwalia. Since the said Bill to amend the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, cannot be passed at least until the Monsoon session of the Parliament, the Government has decided to the re-promulgate the said ordinance now (which will be the third promulgation of the ordinance).
Also see: Joint Parliamentary Committee on Land Acquisition Bill invites public suggestions.
The main changes brought through the land acquisition Bill that will ultimately replace the ordinance and amend the 2013 land acquisition Act (Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013), are as under:
- The benefits of the compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement provided in the 2013 land acquisition Act are proposed to be extended in cases of land acquisition made under 13 Acts (such as the National Highways Act, 1956 and the Railways Act, 1989) specified in the Fourth Schedule of the 2013 Act.
- The process of land acquisition for strategic and development activities, such as, (1) national security or defence of India including preparation for defence and defence production; (2) rural infrastructure including electrification; (3) affordable housing and housing for poor; (4) industrial corridors; (5) infrastructure and social infrastructure projects including projects under public private partnership where the ownership of the land continues to vest with the Government, is to be expedited. The 2013 land acquisition Act requires that the consent of 80% of land owners is obtained for private projects and that the consent of 70% of land owners be obtained for PPP projects. The Bill exempts the five categories mentioned above from this provision of the Act. Moreover, for these categories, a Social Impact Assessment may be exempted.
- The 2013 land acquisition required land acquired under it, which remained unutilised for five years, to be returned to the original owners or the land bank. The amendment proposed is that the period after which unutilised land will need to be returned will be five years or any period specified at the time of setting up the project, whichever is later.
- Under 2013 land acquisition Act, the land may be acquired for public purpose. In order to ensure better health and educational facilities in the country, private hospitals and private educational institutions may be included within the ambit of the ‘public purpose’.
- All such period, that is the period during which the proceeding for acquisition of the land have been held up on account of any stay or injunction issued by any court, or the period specified in the award of a Tribunal for taking possession or such period where possession has been taken but the compensation is lying deposited in a court or in any account maintained for this purpose, is proposed to be excluded in calculation of 5 years period as specified in sub-section (2) of section 24 of the 2013 land acquisition Act, arising out of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.
- Section 46 of the 2013 land acquisition Act is being modified so that the rehabilitation and resettlement benefits are available to land owners in case of purchase of land through private negotiations by non-governmental entities.
- Section 87 of the 2013 land acquisition Act is being amended so that action against an official of the Government will be taken as per section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
