Court cancels acquisition of land for Reliance

The court quashed the notification issued by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government in 2004 for use of emergency powers to acquire land for the project ignoring the provisions of inviting objections from the farmers.

The decision of the court came on a bunch of writ petitions by as many as 47 farmers, whose land had been acquired by the then Uttar Pradesh government for the gas based thermal power plant. The court, while cancelling the acquisition of the land, said that the farmers, whose land had been acquired, could return the compensation and take back their land.

Taking serious exception to the use of ‘emergency power clause’ in the land acquisition, the court also ruled that the company would have to go for fresh acquisition of land from the farmers. The Mulayam Singh Yadav regime had in 2004 initiated the process to acquire 2,500 acres of land for the Rs 25 thousand crore project.