SC says fair compensation can’t depend on financial burden

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of India said the government cannot deny fair compensation in land acquisition cases just because the financial burden is high, according to Dhananjay Mahapatra's Times of India report. It also limited a more generous compensation system. This could reduce the National Highways Authority of India’s Rs 29,000 crore liability for land acquired since 1995.

The NHAI had asked the court to review two earlier rulings in the Tarsem Singh case. It said the financial burden was wrongly calculated as Rs 100 crore. It argued the actual amount could be around Rs 29,000 crore.

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A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan did not agree. The court said, "Constitutional guarantee of just compensation cannot be rendered contingent upon the magnitude of the financial burden. Consequently, a mere escalation in projected liability, howsoever significant, does not constitute, a valid ground for review or modification of the judgment."

Writing the verdict, CJI Kant said the earlier rulings were correct. He said financial concerns, like paying solatium and interest, cannot take away the rights of landowners.

However, the court also made its position clear. It said solatium and interest will be given only to landowners whose claims were still pending. Those who had already received compensation and did not challenge it earlier will not get this benefit. The bench said such landowners cannot come back after many years to ask for higher compensation based on the Tarsem Singh judgments.

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"All landowners whose claims regarding quantum and/or components of compensation for their lands acquired under the NH Act were alive on or after March 28, 2008... shall be entitled to seek addition of 'interest', 'solatium', and 'interest on the solatium' to their compensation claim," SC said.

With TOI inputs