SC adjourns hearing on RPL land acquisition case

The Supreme Court on Friday adjourned the hearing on a petition filed by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, challenging an Allahabad High Court verdict that quashed an Uttar Pradesh government notification to acquire land for the company's 8,000-MW Dadri power project. A bench, comprising Justices B Sudershan Reddy and S S Nijjar, accepted ADAG's plea to defer the hearing for three months after its counsel said that Anil Ambani was in talks with his brother Mukesh Ambani over the family business. The Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power Ltd (RPL) had challenged the December 5, 2009, decision of the Allahabad High Court quashing the Uttar Pradesh government's notification for using emergency powers to acquire land for the company's 8,000-MW Dadri power project. The High Court said that the State Government had side-stepped a provision inviting objections from land owners.

In its appeal, RPL contended that the High Court should not have entertained the farmers' petition because they had delayed filing it. It said that the company had complied with the provisions of the Land Acquisition law, and the project was in the interests of the public.

About 2,500 acres of land were acquired by the state government from the farmers for the project.

The High Court judgment had come after farmers filed several petitions challenging the acquisition of land in 2004, when the Samajwadi Party was in power.

The petitioners were supported by former prime minister V P Singh and farmers' organisation Sahyog Samiti. The farmers had questioned the method of acquiring land, which was taken for a "public purpose" under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act by the Mulayam Singh government. The High Court, in its verdict, had said that "all subsequent proceedings consequent to the notification of February 11, 2004, are quashed".

The court also directed the state government to resolve anomalies in land acquisition and conduct fresh negotiations on the issue with the protesting farmers. The project was planned by the Reliance Group, headed by late Dhirubhai Ambani, much before the reorganisation of Reliance Group's assets between the two brothers in 2005.