HC reserves orders on Godrej plea on land acquisition for bullet train project

After the hearing, the division bench of justice RD Dhanuka and justice MM Sathaye asked the company to not put up anything on the 39,252 square metre plot till the judgement is pronounced.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court, on Tuesday, reserved its order on the petition filed by Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Ltd., challenging the acquisition of part of the company’s land at Vikhroli for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

Besides, the court clarified that the company will not set up any claim under section 38 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, as the period of three months for taking possession of the land under the section expired during the pendency of the petition. (HT PHOTO)

After the hearing, the division bench of justice RD Dhanuka and justice MM Sathaye asked the company to not put up anything on the 39,252 square metre plot till the judgement is pronounced. The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) seeks to set up a ventilation shaft, traction substation and distribution substation.

Besides, the court clarified that the company will not set up any claim under section 38 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, as the period of three months for taking possession of the land under the section expired during the pendency of the petition.

Since the hearing on the petition was going on, the state government did not take any action to take possession of the land and therefore the company cannot now use that as an argument, the judges said. Senior advocate Navroj Seervai, who represented Godrej & Boyce accepted the same as “fair” and assured that they will not make any such contention.

On March 26, 2018, the state government first issued a notification expressing its intent to acquire the plot in Vikhroli.

The company had however objected to handing over the plot identified by the NHSRCL and offered an alternate plot, around 200 metres away. The company approached the HC in July 2018 for the same and after much deliberation and arguments, NHSRCL in September 2019 relented and accepted the plot being offered by Godrej & Boyce.

The company, however, approached HC again in December 2019 challenging the constitutional validity of the amendment to section 10A of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, exempting the acquisition for the bullet train project exempt from Social Impact Assessment, public hearing and publication of Social Impact Assessment report and similar other procedures.

The company had also objected to the acquisition as the maximum permissible period for declaring the award had lapsed and the state government had failed to abide by the acquisition procedure as laid down in section 25 of the Act.

The state government has, however, maintained that the company was delaying the acquisition process for vested interests, which in turn had escalated the cost of the project by around ₹1,000 crores. The state government had also informed the court that the company had the “lion’s share” in the delay of the project and that its actions were against the national interest and hence the company should not be granted any relief whatsoever.

On September 19, 2022, the state government informed the company that it had decided to award ₹264 crores to the company as compensation for the acquired land. However, the award was not acceptable to the company and hence subsequently the company also included a challenge to the award in their petition. Initially, it was offered ₹572 crores based on the recommendation of the district-level committee headed by the Collector, Mumbai Suburban District and the Deputy Collector (Land Acquisition).

The main thrust of Godrej & Boyce in its submissions has been that while they are willing to part with the land required for the bullet train project, it was not willing to be short-changed by the government which had reneged on its offer for the compensation amount. The company maintained that in the recent past they parted with 400 acres of their land at Vikorli, which was handed over to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to set up a sewage treatment plant.

The state government and the NHSRCL on the other hand maintained that the acquisition of the land for the bullet train project in Maharashtra was complete except for the Godrej plot in Vikorli.