Shillong, Sep 21: The Meghalaya High Court has pulled up the centre and state for sitting on compensation for eight years after acquiring land for Indo-Bangladesh border fencing.
“When the Government takes possession of the land but sits on the compensation for years without a valid legal reason, it projects an abuse of power by the authorities,” Justice Biswadeep Bhattacharjee said, while disposing of two writ petitions.
The court passed two separate but identical orders on Monday, directing payment within three months.
In the first petition, Gangget R. Sangma of Torangpara, South West Garo Hills, had challenged non-payment despite her land being acquired in 2017-18 and draft award being prepared on September 4, 2018.
In the second, six petitioners – Rajison R. Marak, Jogeshwar Koch (Nokma), Indubhuson Sangma, Rubison Arengh, Namrang Sangma and Nonjing Arengh, all from South West Garo Hills, had raised the same grievance.
In both cases, acquisition was done under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 for border fencing. The draft awards were approved by the Joint Secretary, Revenue & Disaster Management Department, but compensation was never released.
Both the centre and state governments contended that payment could not be processed “due to certain confusion and request of clarification with regard to the final draft award/s” and placed communications between officials to show confusion over the amount.
The court rejected the plea, noting that order sheets show “several orders were passed” since 2019 to push payment, but “no concrete step has been taken either by the respondent/Union of India or by the state-respondents” and the matter was delayed “on the pretext of one or the other.”
Holding that the reason cited by the state and the centre does not absolve them of the responsibility of paying the land compensation in time,” the court directed the concerned authorities to settle the confusion and take proper steps to disburse the amount of compensation to the affected landowners within a period of three months.
