The Land Acquisition Act 1894 outlines the process by which the government can acquire private land for public purposes. Key aspects include: 1) The government publishes a preliminary notification and declares that the land is required for a public purpose within one year. 2) Affected landowners can object to the acquisition. The collector then submits a report to the government. 3) Once acquisition is declared, the collector issues notices to landowners, determines compensation, and can take possession of the land. 4) Case studies demonstrate issues with the Act, such as determining fair compensation when acquiring large areas of land and addressing farmers' concerns over land acquisition.

1. Land Acquisition Act 1894
By
Dr. Venkateswarlu Gogana

2. Land Acquisition Act 1894
“Land Acquisition” literally means acquiring of land for some public purpose by
government/government agency, as authorised by the law, from the individual landowner
after paying a government fixed compensation in lieu of losses incurred by land owner
due to surrendering of his/their land to the concerned government agency.
As per the LA Act the expression" public purpose" includes;
1. The provision of village sites or the extension,
2. Planned development or improvement of existing village-sites
3. The provision of land for town or rural planning,
4. The provision of land for carrying out any educational, housing, health or slum
clearance scheme sponsored by Government or by any authority established by
Government for carrying out any such scheme,
5. The provision of land for residential purposes to the poor or landless or to persons
residing in areas affected by natural calamities, or -to persons displaced or affected by
reason of the implementation of any scheme undertaken by Government, any local-
authority or a corporation owned or controlled by the State.

3. 2. Hearing of Objection
- Under the section 5A(1): Any person interested in any land which has been notified
under section 4(1) as being needed or likely to be needed for a public purpose or for
a Company may, within thirty days after the issue of the notification, object to the
acquisition of the land or of any land in the locality, as the case may be.
- These objection shall have to be made to the collector in writing.
- After hearing all such objections, making further inquiries collector submitted a
comprehensives report to the government covering numbers of objection and the
solved one along with the recommendation.
- After scrutinizing the report, the govt. finally decides which land to be acquired.
Procedure
1. Publication of preliminary notification
-Under the section 4(1): Whenever it appears to the appropriate Government that
land in any locality is needed or is likely to be needed for any public purpose, a
notification to that effect shall be published in the Official Gazette, and the Collector
shall cause public notice.
- The notification shall be published in two daily news papers circulated in that
locality of which at least one should be regional language.
- The collector shall display a public notice of such notification at the convenient
places in the locality.
- The date of display of such public notice shall be consider as the date of publication
of notification.

4. 5. Inquiry against claim
- The collector conducts an inquiry under section 11: Enquiry and award by Collector
- Under the section 12: Award of Collector when to be final.
The award is finalized and this award is to be given within 2 years from the date of
publication of notification.
- If any dispute arises, the collector may refer the matters to court under section
30 :Disputes as to apportionment
3. Declaration of land Acquisition
- Under section 6: Declaration that land is required for a public purpose
- The govt. Declare that the land would be required for such public purpose
- This declaration should be made within 1 year from the date of publication of
notification.
4. Notice of compensation
- Under the section 9: Notice to persons interested
- The collector issues a notice to all those person whose land has to be acquired,
through these notice the collector inquiries interested person to claim
compensation.

5. 6. Determination of compensation
- Under the section 23: Matters to be considered in determining compensation
-The compensation is determined considering the following :
➢ the market-value of the land at the date of the publication of the notification under section 4(1)
➢ the damage by the person interested, by reason of the taking of any standing crops or trees which
may be on the land at the time of the Collector's taking possession thereof
➢ the damage (if any) sustained by the person interested, at the time of the Collector's taking
possession of the land, by reason of the acquisition injuriously affecting his other property,
movable or immovable, in any other manner, or his earnings;
➢ if in the consequence of the acquisition of the land by the Collector, the person interested is
compelled to change his residence or place of business, the reasonable expenses (if any) incidental
to such change
7. Possession of land
- Under section 16: Power to take possession:-
When the Collector has made an award under section 12, he may take possession of
the land, which shall thereupon vest absolutely in the Government, free from all
encumbrances.
- This act also has unique clause under section 17: Special powers in cases of urgency:-
In cases of urgency, whenever the appropriate Government so directs, the Collector,
though no such award has been made, may, on the expiration of fifteen days from the
publication of the notice can take possession of any waste or arable land needed for public
purposes or for a Company.
- The collector can possess the land and the compensation is given later on which is 80% of
the estimated compensation to the land owners

6. Some Case Studies regarding the Land Acquisition Act
1. Navi Mumbai International Airport
➢ Navi Mumbai International Airport is a proposed Greenfield international airport, to
be built in the Kopra – Panvel area,
➢ The airport is being built through public-private partnership (PPP)
➢ Private sector partner will hold 74% equity while the Airports Authority of India (AAI)
and the Government of Maharashtra (through CIDCO) each holding 13%.
➢ Its first phase was supposed to be operational by 2014, but that deadline will not be
met, as construction had not even begun by July 2013.
➢ The cost of the project, which is being developed through the public-private
partnership route, is estimated at 52.6 billion (US$840 million).
➢ The airport will have a terminal area of 250,000 m and a cargo area of 100,000 sq m.
and handle 50–55 million passengers annually.
➢ The proposed airport project requires 2,042
hectares of land.
➢ The state now needs to acquire 485 hectares
(24%) of land which is privately owned by
individuals, including farmers.
➢ Farmers demanded sum of Rs20 crore per acre
to let go of their land for the project and also
want ownership in the developed airport land.

7. .
➢ The government is unable to give in to the demands of farmers who are quoting
Rs20 crore per acre because the cost of compensation will then be more than the
estimated cost of the project.
➢ The officials said after buying land, the rehabilitation of 5,000 families from 10
settlements of seven villages will be a challenge too.
➢ The committee had offered the (project-affected people) PAP two rehabilitation-
related compensation options:
a) 12.5 per cent of developed land at the ready reckoned rates, in addition to
monetary compensation;
b) 22.5 per cent developed land in Navi Mumbai.
➢ CIDCO has estimated that the market value of the 22.5 per cent developed land will
be worth Rs 18 crore per hectare in 2017 against the present value of Rs 15 lakhs per
hectare.
➢ The Maharashtra government on Monday(12th Aug, 2013) ruled out giving monetary
compensation worth Rs 20 crore per acre or Rs 50 crore per hectare to the project-
affected persons (PAPs) of the Navi Mumbai international airport.

8. 2. Proposal to shift Amritsar Central Jail to Bhalapind
➢ The farmers are up in arms against the proposed acquisition of around 80 acres of
land in Bhalapind, 17 km from Amritsar, for building a new jail.
➢ At present, the local Central Jail is grappling with the problem of overcrowding, as
there are over 2,500 prisoners in it against the capacity of 1,000.
➢ Of the total land that the government intends to acquire in Bhalapind, 50 to 55
acres belongs to sugarcane seed farm of the village’s cooperative sugar mill while
the rest is owned by around 15 small farmers.
➢ They also accused the local SAD leaders of pressuring the farmers to give away their
land at the rate of Rs 30 lakhs per acre as compared to the prevailing market price
of Rs 1 crore per acre.
“Reminding Chief Minister of his promise that the farmers’ land would not be
acquired forcibly, he said there was no rationale in shifting the existing Central Jail in
Amritsar to Bhalapind. “At present, the Central Jail is spread over 89 acres of land
and only half of it is constructed area. It offers adequate scope for further
expansion.”

9. Issues Regarding the Land Acquisition Act
It has failed to address some important issues associated with land acquisition particularly
forcible acquisitions:
1. definition of public purpose
2. lack of transparency in the acquisition process
3. participation of communities whose land is being acquired
4. no rehabilitation and resettlement package.
5. weak implementation and ineffective administration at the ground level has increased
the suffering and anguish of the people.