Telangana HC stays land acquisition process at Lagcherla and Hakimpet villages
Blow to state government and TSIIC
HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Thursday stayed the government and TG Industrial Infrastructure Corporation’s land acquisition process at Lagcherla and Hakimpet villages in Vikarabad district for a proposed industrial corridor.
Justice Jaggannagari Sreenivas Rao directed the state machinery to stop the land acquisition process till further orders.
The judge was hearing two separate petitions filed by farmers from the villages, Pathlavath Gopal Nayak and 14 others of Lagcherla, and Kummari Shiva Kumar of Hakimpet, who challenged the process that was based on a notification dated November 29, 2024, for acquiring land of 110 acres in Lagcherla and 351 acres in Hakimpet for setting up a multipurpose industrial park.
The state government had withdrawn the decision to set up pharma villages in Lagcharla last November. It withdrew the preliminary notification given for the acquisition of about 1,358 acres of land in Lagcharla, Hakimpet and Polepalli.
It then decided to set up a multipurpose industrial park instead of pharma villages. Towards this, a preliminary notification was issued on November 29, 2024, to acquire 1,177.35 acres in Lagcharla, Hakimpet, Polepalli, Rotibanda thanda and Pulicherlakunta. Out of this, 534 acres are government land and the remaining 643 acres are patta land.
Challenging the notifications, several farmers approached the High Court complaining that the authorities were not complying with the provisions of the Right to Fair compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013.
The state government, through the district collector, issued a gazette notification for acquiring the land for the industrial corridor on an urgent basis and claimed exemption under Section 10-A of the Land Acquisition Act. This section allows the state to avail exemption from hearing the farmers and their objections and conducting social impact assessment, while setting up infra projects. But to avail of the benefit under this section, the state has to show exceptional and compelling reasons.
Senior counsel B.S. Prasad, representing the farmers, argued that the authorities had not shown any reason for the urgent land acquisition without hearing the people's voice. They merely re-issued the notification that was withdrawn just days before the issuance of a new one last November, Prasad argued.
The court stayed the ongoing land acquisition in respect of the two villages and sought a counter from the state and its revenue and land acquisition authorities by April 7.
