The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday, July 26, referred all the cases of land acquisition in Noida and Greater Noida (Gautam Budh Nagar) to a larger bench for its final decision. While setting August 17 as the next date of hearing, a bench comprising justice Amitava Lala and justice Ashok Srivastava allowed the farmers, the development authorities and the state government to settle the compensation issue, if possible through negotiation, by August 12.
The bench said the Government would inform the court about such a settlement. The court’s decision to provide 18 days to the parties concerned is aimed at bringing about an amicable settlement to the land acquisition issue.
Realty projects in Noida Extension (Shahberi and Patwari villages) have come to a halt after the Allahabad high court quashed land acquisition in the area through successive decrees.
The Court said the larger bench would pass an appropriate order at the next hearing. The bench also directed any action taken would be subject to the final verdict on the writ petitions.
The petitioners had alleged there were large-scale irregularities in land acquisition in Noida and Greater Noida. The counsels appearing on behalf of farmers argued there was no reason to refer the matter to the larger bench. However, the state Government counsel said there was no option but to do it.
A writ petition seeking CBI probe into the land acquisition matter is also pending before the Court and no decision had been passed so far. In this petition, a request had been made that the matter should be given to CBI to investigate as the land was acquired in the name of “public purpose” but later on it was “handed” over to builders.
