MSHRC asks Thane collector to pay compensation to Mumbai-Vadodara Highway PAP

The Maharashtra Human Rights Commission has ordered fair compensation for a man whose land was acquired for the Mumbai-Vadodara highway project.

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) has recommended that the Thane collector pay fair compensation to a man whose land in Kalyan was acquired for the Mumbai–Vadodara National Highway project.

MSHRC asks Thane collector to pay compensation to Mumbai-Vadodara Highway PAP

“It is the duty of the state to pay fair compensation to the owners of the property upon acquisition of such property for the purpose of the state,” the commission said in an order passed last month, directing the collector to pay compensation to the complainant, Mohamed Latif Shaikh, within a month.

In his complaint dated December 30, 2024, Shaikh told the commission that he had received no compensation for his land, which included his home and shop, due to which he lost his livelihood and faced financial hardship.

MSHRC chairperson justice A M Badar noted in his order that the commission had earlier directed the Thane collector to conduct a fact-finding inquiry into the land acquisition and the compensation paid to the landowner. However, the commission observed that the collector had “chosen to remain absent” and appeared to have “conceded to the averments made in the complaint” filed by Shaikh.

“In the absence of any rebuttal from the Thane collector, it needs to be held that the property of the complainant was compulsorily acquired by the state without payment of any compensation,” Justice Badar said.

Apart from approaching the MSHRC, Shaikh has also filed a petition before the Bombay High Court along with ten others who occupied land belonging to the Garib Nawaz Welfare Society in Baneli, Kalyan. The land was acquired for the Mumbai–Vadodara Expressway, a greenfield project of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) that will connect Vadodara in Gujarat with Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Raigad district. The petitioners claimed to have occupied the premises for about a decade.

According to Shaikh’s petition, filed through advocate R N Kachwe in June last year, his property and that of his co-petitioners had been under acquisition for the highway project for the past five years. The petitioners owned tenements of around 325 sq ft each on the land near Titwala, which they had purchased for about ₹7–8 lakh each.

The petition stated that while the property owners were awaiting compensation under the Land Acquisition Act and the Maharashtra Project Affected Persons Rehabilitation Act, 1999, some of the premises had been demolished since December 2022 “without due process of law”. It added that in July 2022, the sub-divisional engineer, Kalyan division, had held meetings with 125 occupants regarding land acquisition and compensation.

The petition further stated that in December 2022 and January 2023, occupants of the property filed police complaints over the alleged demolitions. Forty-eight occupants also filed arbitration petitions before the sole arbitrator appointed for the project.

Shaikh has urged the High Court to direct the state government to pay compensation to him and his co-petitioners and to not obstruct possession of the tenements until compensation is paid.