New Delhi:
In a stern warning to the Mayawati government for acquiring prime agricultural land to benefit builders, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will step in if this continued as it did not want "more Nandigrams" in other states.
"We will not keep our eyes closed. You take it (agricultural land) from one side and give it to the other. This has to go and if it does not go this court will step in to ensure that. It is development of one section of the society only," the bench said.
Taking the government to task, a bench of Justices P Sathasivam and A K Patnaik asked: "Whose residential use are these flats for? Who is building them? What are the prices? We want to go into details of the case. This urgency clause is not automatically invoked...We do not want more Nandigrams in all states."
The Bench said it would not like a situation similar to Nandigram in West Bengal where such steps to acquire land by invoking urgency clause under which farmers cannot raise objections led to large-scale protests and violence.
The hard-hitting observations were made by the bench during the hearing on petitions filed by Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority and real estate developers and builders including Supertech and Amrapali challenging the Allahabad High Court order which had quashed the notifications for land acquisition in Greater Noida, adjoining the national capital.
The apex court expressed its annoyance over the invocation of urgency clause under the land acquisition law for taking over the land on which high-cost residential flats were being constructed. The next hearing will be on July 5.
The High Court had on May 31 quashed acquisition of 170 hectares of land at Gulistan village in Greater Noida for industrial development, terming it as a "colourable exercise of power".