A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday set aside a single judge's interim order directing that the steps for survey of land for the SilverLine project be deferred.
Allowing an appeal filed by the State government against the single judge’s directive, the Bench comprising Chief Justice S.Manikumar and Justice Shaji P. Chali observed that “the State government was vested with adequate powers to conduct the survey, and mark the properties appropriately, for conducting the social impact assessment study”.
Advocate General K.Gopalakrishna Kurup argued that the single judge had prohibited the State government from conducting the survey of the land and laying stones, thus causing serious impact on the steps being taken by the government to introduce the semi-high-speed rail corridor connecting eleven districts of the State.
He contended that as a social impact study was a mandatory requirement, the State government and its authorised officers had to enter properties and make a report, to comply with the requirements of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013.
The Advocate General submitted that the attempt of the writ petitioners was to scuttle the project as such and that the State government and its officials would not do anything to acquire the land, without following the procedure contemplated under the LARR Act
The court observed that the State government was at the initial stage of understanding the social impact that was likely to occur if the government proceeded with the acquisition of land, and therefore, it could not be said that the provisions of the LARR Act, which dealt with notification and acquisition, publication of preliminary notification, would come into operation at this stage of the proceedings. The stage of the acquisition should reach in order to employ these provisions.
The court also recorded the submission of S.Manu, Assistant Solicitor General, that the proposal submitted by the State government for utilisation of railway property for the project was under the consideration of the Ministry of Railways, and thereafter, various procedures were to be undertaken through different departments of the Union Government. Therefore, the State government was not entitled to fix survey stones on the properties of Railways.
