Petitioners sought quashing of land acquisition proceedings under RFCTLARR Act 2013 for a Patna Metro Rail depot covering about 75.96 acres, challenging the social impact assessment and related orders. The writ was dismissed after petitioners failed to remove defects within the stipulated time.
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA Civil Writ Jurisdiction Case No.17426 of 2022
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... ... Respondent/s
====================================================== Appearance : For the Petitioner/s : Mr. Sumeet Kumar Singh For the Respondent/s : Mr. Yogendra Pd. Sinha (Aag7) For PMC : Mr. Prasoon Sinha, Sr. Adv. Mr. Prabhat Kumar, Adv. For PMRC : Mr. Mohit Agrawal, Adv. ======================================================
CORAM: HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE RAJIV ROY
ORAL ORDER
3 18-04-2025 Heard the parties.
following relief(s):
(i) That the present writ application is being filed in the nature of Certiorari for quashing the process of acquisition published in the daily newspaper
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"Hindustan" dated 23.10.2021 (AnnexureP/28) under Section-11(1) of the Right To Fair Compensation And Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation And Resettlement Act, 2013 (hereinafter referred to as "RFCTLARRA, 2013 for the sake of Brevity") which has been initiated under the signature of the District Magistrate, Patna with regard to 50.5950 acres of land bearing Mauja-Pahadi, Revenue PS- Patna City, Thana No.-14, and 25.35 acres of land and in Mauja-Ranipur, in Revenue PS - Patna city, Thana No.-19, Circle-Patna Sadar, District-Patna and, altogether 75.96 acres of land is acquired under Project Patna Metro Rail Depot Corporation for construction of rail depot yard; on the ground that the notification dated 23.10.2021 is incorrect, the process is without following the Social Impact Assessment (herein after referred as " SIA for the sake of brevity"), the action is in violation of section-4, 6 & 7 of RFCTLARR Act, 2013, the notification is itself wrong as the same on the face of record states that there is no displacement of people and the SIA report is totally contradictory stating there is displacement of people;
(ii) That the present writ application is being filed in the nature of Certiorari for quashing the report of the
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Social Impact Assessment in relation to the Patna Metro Rail depot Corporation (Annexure-P/21); as the same is complete violation of section 4, 6 and 7 of the "RFCTLARRA, 2013"; on the ground that no proper opportunity of hearing was given to the public at large as the entire process was conducted during the outbreak of COVID-19 second wave i.e notice was given on 1.06.2021 and public hearing was done on 4.06.2021, the sample admittedly is of small size and there is no finding for alternative land despite of the objections raised by the affected families for 6 times in S.I.A; there is no giving of 21 days' notice for public hearing as per Rule-11(3) of the Bihar Right To Fair Compensation And Transparency In Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation And Resettlement Rules, 2014(herein after referred "Rules, 2014" for the sake of brevity);
(iii) That the present writ application is filed in the nature of Certiorari for quashing the formation of the technical expert group under Section-7 of RFCTLRRA, 2013 dated 23.06.2021 (Annexure-P/22) by which expert committee has been constituted; on the ground that the two members at serial no. 6 and 7 who have been added as two representatives of the
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Panchayat, Gram Sabha, Municipality, or Municipal Corporation as the case may be, the said members does not belong to the municipality under which the land is intended to be acquired of ward no.56 or belong being the representative of any municipality;
(iv) That the present writ application is filed in the nature of Certiorari for quashing the technical expert report under Section-7 of RFCTLRRA, 2013 dated 30.06.2021 (Annexure-P/23) by which expert committee has submitted the report; on the ground that the section-7(2)(b) of the RFCTLRR Act, 2013 has been violated on the face of the record and in violation of the intention and objective of the RFCTLRR Act, 2013;
(v) That the present writ application is being filed in the nature of Certiorari for quashing the order dated 02.02.2022 (Annexure-P/29) passed by the District Land Acquisition Officer, Patna who has been pleased to dismiss the objection filed by the petitioners except petitioner no.14 under section-15 of the Act; the order passed has not considered the objection filed by the petitioners, the objection has been summarily rejected, it is a non-speaking order, there is no consideration of the law as
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per the Act by the District Land Acquisition Officer, Patna, there is no finding or opinion for alternative land, there is no reason assigned in the order;
(vi) That the present writ application is being filed in the nature of Certiorari for quashing the order dated 27.01.2022 (Annexure-P/29-A) passed by the District Land Acquisition Officer, Patna who has been pleased to dismiss the objection filed by the Petitioner-14 under section-15 of the Act; the order passed has not considered the objection filed by the petitioners, the objection has been summarily rejected, it is a non-speaking order, there is no consideration of the law as per the Act by the District Land Acquisition Officer, Patna, there is no finding or opinion for alternative land, there is no reason assigned in the order;
(vii) That the present writ application is being filed in the nature of Certiorari for quashing the paper publication dated 11.05.2022(AnnexureP/30) under section-19 of the "RFCTLARRA, 2013" issued under the signature of District Magistrate, Patna with regard to 50.5950 acres of land bearing Mauja-Pahadi, Revenue PS- Patna City, Thana No.-14, and 25.35 acres of land and in Mauja-Ranipur,
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in Revenue P.S Patna city, Thana No.- 19, Circle-Patna Sadar, District-Patna and, altogether 75.96 acres of land; on the ground that the notification dated 11.05.2022 is incorrect, the process is without following the SIA, the action is in violation of section-4, 6 & 7 of RFCTLARR Act, 2013, the notification is itself wrong as the same on the face of record states that there is no displacement of people and the SIA report is totally contradictory stating there is displacement of people, there is no proper disposal of the objection in term of section-15 of the RFCTLARRA,2013, there is no public hearing in terms of Rules, 2014 in the SIA report;
remove the defect.
(Rajiv Roy, J)
Vijay Singh/-
U
Bijendra Kumar
The State of Bihar through the Chief Secretary, Government of Bihar
Patna Municipal Corporation
Patna Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.
National Mission for Clean Ganga
Archaeological Survey of India
Rajiv Roy
As recorded by the court registry
2 orders share this CNR
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