The Supreme Court today, July 6, upheld the Allahabad High Court order that had quashed the Greater Noida Authority’s acquisition of land in the Shahberi village that falls under Noida Extension. The Supreme Court also imposed a fine of Rs. 10 lakh on the Greater Noida Authority. Noida Extension is the name given to a group of villages in the Noida-Greater Noida region.
In May, the Allahabad High Court had quashed the Greater Noida Authority notification for acquiring over 150 hectares of land in the village.
Delivering the order, the Supreme Court bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said, “Everything is meticulously planned. Your offers know it would be handed over to builder for private purpose but doesn’t happen overnight. Officers know very much. It is a brazen overreach of judicial process. The authority has to act in public interest but what it did was to serve private builders interest. You don’t understand the psyche of farmer. Land is his mother.”
The SC said the Greater Noida Authority had undertaken the allotment of land to builders in complete violation of the purpose for which the land was acquired and the land usage was changed even before getting approval from the state government.
The Greater Noida Authority had earlier bought lands from farmers for industrial projects, but later changed the land usage to residential projects.
On Tuesday, the Court had slammed the authorities for taking advantage of the “colonial law” on land acquisition to divest farmers of their prime agricultural land benefitting the rich and paying “pittance” to common men.
The Supreme Court’s decision is likely to affect several builders including Amarpali, Ajnara, Mahagun, Supertech, Paramount and Panchsheel.
