Typographical error in the drafting of the land acquisition Act puts Parasaran in trouble
The outgoing UPA government considered the land acquisition Act as one of its greatest achievements. The new law faced violent agitations as the land was taken away from the farmers and the compensation was inadequate when the land was acquired for any government infrastructure project.
The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, mandates fair compensation, rehabilitation and resettlement of affected families. It also allows the landowner to reclaim land if the state hasn’t been able to determine compensation for it within a five-year period.
The former Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran gave his opinion on December 28, 2013, holding that the new Act would apply “only to cases where no awards (compensation) were passed” five years or more prior to January 1, 2014. This meant land could be returned only in cases where the state government had failed to declare compensation even five years after acquiring the land.
The clarification that came 18 days later said the opinion contained a typographical error, and the word ‘’no’’ was dropped. The new Act would now apply “only” to cases where compensation was declared by a state government five years or more prior to January 1, 2014. The corrected opinion was sent by Parasaran on January 15, 2014 to Jairam Ramesh, then minister for rural development.
This meant that farmers could reclaim land even if a state government had declared compensation but the stay on the acquisition spanned five years or more. The ramifications of this error were many and the act faced a strong blow which the UPA considered as one of its greatest achievements.
Source- The Economic Times
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